The conservative-majority US Supreme Court on Monday sent back to lower courts the question of Donald Trump’s criminal immunity as a former president, further delaying his federal trial in Washington, four months before the election.
By the voice of the six conservative judges against that of 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“. This decision is “a great victory for our democracy and our Constitution“, immediately reacted Donald Trump, campaigning to return to the White House.
The Republican “thinks he is above the law“, accused Joe Biden’s campaign team on Monday, considering that the decision “does not change the facts (…): Donald Trump snapped after losing the 2020 election and encouraged a mob to overturn the results of a free and fair election“, according to a campaign advisor.
Procedure suspended
By deciding on February 28 to take up this question, then by scheduling the debates nearly three months later, the highest court in the United States had already considerably postponed the federal trial of the former Republican president for attempting to illegally reverse the results of the 2020 election won by Joe Biden.
The entire procedure for this trial, initially scheduled to start on March 4 and postponed indefinitely, had already been suspended for four months. During the debates, while the judges had generally been skeptical of the absolute immunity claimed by the Republican candidate, several, particularly among conservatives, had insisted on the long-term repercussions of their decision.
“We are writing a rule for posterity“, Neil Gorsuch had observed, 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.
Appeal
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 a series of appeals, Donald Trump’s lawyers have managed to postpone until further notice the other trials, at the federal level for withholding classified documents after he left the White House and before the courts of the key state of Georgia for electoral interference in 2020.
If re-elected, Donald Trump could, once inaugurated in January 2025, order a halt to federal prosecutions against him.
donald trump trump united states biden trump trial
