2024-02-28 22:34:54
Donald Trump, in New York, January 11, 2024. SETH WENIG / AP
The Supreme Court of the United States decided, Wednesday, February 28, to take up the question of the criminal immunity of former American President Donald Trump, accused of having tried to interfere with the results of the presidential election of 2020.
In an unsigned statement, the country’s highest court says it will consider ” whether and, if so, to what extent a former president enjoys presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts while in office.”
The trial of the former Republican president for illicit attempts to reverse the results of the election won by Democrat Joe Biden was initially scheduled to begin on March 4. But the entire procedure was suspended while the question of criminal immunity claimed by Donald Trump was decided by the courts.
On February 6, a federal appeals court rejected this criminal immunity invoked by the candidate in the Republican primaries for the presidential election of November 2024, reopening the way for his trial in Washington in this case. Donald Trump therefore turned to the Supreme Court to obtain a suspension of the entry into force of this decision.
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Special prosecutor Jack Smith, who is investigating the case, on the contrary urged the Supreme Court to reject this suspension request. He also recommended that she not take up the issue, but if she ever did, to set an accelerated timetable so that in the event of definitive rejection of Donald Trump’s criminal immunity, “the trial can be held with a reduced additional period”.
In his written arguments, Jack Smith emphasized the“unique national importance of this criminal case”in which a former president is “criminally prosecuted for attempting to maintain power by preventing the legitimate winner of the election from taking office”.
In its decision on Wednesday, the Supreme Court partly satisfied Donald Trump by not allowing the appeal decision to come into force until it had ruled itself. By scheduling the debates at “the week of April 22”, on the other hand, she grants the special prosecutor’s request for an early deadline. She will likely make her decision by the end of June at the latest.
Trump claims “absolute immunity”
Most legal and political commentators emphasized Wednesday evening that this was a success for Donald Trump’s delaying strategy, since the Supreme Court’s decision further reduces the chances that the trial could take place before the presidential election, even if the nine judges rejected his immunity. If he were elected again, once inaugurated in January 2025, he could order a halt to federal proceedings against him.
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The Supreme Court has already ruled that presidents enjoy immunity from civil liability for official acts, and Mr. Trump’s lawyers claim a “absolute immunity”arguing, for months, that this protection should also be extended to criminal prosecutions.
“Without immunity from criminal prosecution, the presidency as we know it will cease to exist”they say, repeating arguments that have so far failed in federal courts.
“For the purposes of this criminal case, former President Trump became Citizen Trump, with the same protections as any other defendant, the three appeal judges wrote in their unanimous decision, confirming that pronounced in December at first instance by Judge Tanya Chutkan. But any executive immunity that might have protected him when he was president in office no longer protects him from these prosecutions. »
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Go to trial as late as possible
The former president’s defense seeks through its multiple appeals to go to trial as late as possible, in any case after the presidential election in November. She attributes partisan motives to the prosecution’s pressure for a speedy trial. “Conducting a months-long criminal trial against President Trump in the midst of an election period will radically disrupt President Trump’s ability to campaign against President Biden – which appears to be the goal of the Special Prosecutor’s persistent requests for a speedy trial”thus argue the lawyers of the big favorite of the Republican primaries.
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The case is just one of the criminal charges Mr. Trump faces as he seeks to win back the White House. In Florida, he is accused of illegally storing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago property. He is also accused in a Georgia state court of trying to overturn the 2020 elections in that state and, in New York, of paying bribes to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels.
On Wednesday, in another legal case whose judgment was rendered in mid-February, a New York judge rejected an offer of a guarantee of 100 million dollars provided by Donald Trump to cover less than a third of the fine for financial fraud in within his real estate empire to which he was condemned. Mr. Trump will have to provide a payment guarantee on the entire $355 million fine.
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