The conservative-majority US Supreme Court extended the president’s criminal immunity on Monday, July 1, a victory for Donald Trump, whose federal trial has been delayed once again.
The US Supreme Court, with a conservative majority, extended the president’s criminal immunity on Monday, July 1. By deciding on February 28 to take up this issue, then scheduling the hearings nearly three months later, the highest court in the United States had already significantly postponed the federal trial of the former Republican president for attempting to illegally reverse the results of the 2020 election won by Joe Biden. By a majority of six votes to three – conservative justices against progressives – the Court considers that “the president enjoys no immunity for his unofficial acts” but that he “is entitled to at least a presumption of immunity for his official acts”. On behalf of the majority, the President of the Court, John Roberts, justifies this decision by “consistent principles of separation of powers”.
Donald Trump hailed the “historic decision,” saying it dismissed most of the charges in the four criminal proceedings against him. In a televised address, Joe Biden denounced the decision as setting a “dangerous precedent” because the president’s powers “will no longer be limited by law.”
With this jurisprudence, Donald Trump will be “emboldened to do what he wants, when he wants” in the event of victory in the November presidential election, his Democratic opponent estimated.
A king above the law
Beyond the case of Donald Trump, this decision “redefines the institution of the presidency” by transforming its holder into “a king above the law in every use of his official power”, wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in her dissent joined by her two progressive colleagues.
In the absence of a real trial before the vote, “there could be detailed hearings on the facts incriminated in the indictment to determine on which ones immunity applies, which will allow the population to be reminded of all of Trump’s acts and the events of January 6” 2021, nevertheless underlines the former federal prosecutor and professor of criminal law Randall Eliason.
The entire procedure for this trial, initially scheduled to start on March 4, had already been suspended for four months. Targeted by four criminal proceedings, Donald Trump is pulling out all the stops to go to trial as late as possible, in any case after the presidential election.
Found guilty on May 30 by the New York courts of “aggravated false accounting to conceal a plot to pervert the 2016 election”, he will be sentenced on July 11.
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With AFP.
