The US Supreme Court has sent the question of Donald Trump’s criminal immunity back to lower courts.
The conservative-majority US Supreme Court on Monday referred the question of Donald Trump’s criminal immunity as ex-president to lower courts, further delaying his federal trial in Washington. By six votes to three, those of the six conservative judges against the three 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”.
Donald Trump, campaigning to return to the White House, immediately welcomed a “great victory” for democracy. By deciding on February 28 to take up this question, then by scheduling the debates almost three months later, the highest court of the United States had already considerably postponed the federal trial of the former Republican president for attempted illegally reverse the results of the 2020 election won by Joe Biden. The entire procedure for this trial, initially scheduled for March 4, and postponed sine die, had already been suspended for four months.
During the debates, if the judges were generally skeptical of the absolute immunity claimed by the Republican candidate, several, particularly among conservatives, insisted on the long-term repercussions of their decision. “We are writing a rule for posterity”observed Neil Gorsuch, referring to the unprecedented nature of the question. “This case has enormous implications for the future of the presidency and the country.”added his colleague Brett Kavanaugh.
Repeated appeals
Targeted by four separate criminal proceedings, Donald Trump is pulling out all the stops to be tried as late as possible, in any case after the presidential election. He was found guilty on May 30 by the New York courts of “aggravated false accounting to conceal a conspiracy to pervert the 2016 election”. His sentence will be pronounced on July 11. But this first criminal conviction, unprecedented for a former American president, in the least politically heavy of the four procedures, also risks being the only one before the vote.
Because through appeals, Donald Trump’s lawyers managed to postpone other trials until further notice, at the federal level for withholding classified documents after his departure from the White House and before the courts of the key state of Georgia for electoral interference in 2020. If he were elected again, Donald Trump could, once inaugurated in January 2025, order a halt to federal proceedings against him.
