The former US president had appealed to the Supreme Court, claiming total immunity in the context of the investigation into the storming of the Capitol in January 2021, in the context of the disputes over the results of the 2020 US presidential election.
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Is a former president of the United States covered by immunity even when he is accused of trying to overturn the results of an election? This is the question that the country’s Supreme Court has just answered. Donald Trump put forward this argument to have the legal proceedings against him cancelled. The judges have just ruled in his favour, only in part.
This is a half-victory for Trump because he is still buying time. The judges have just decided that it is not up to them to decide but to lower courts. This further delays the holding of his trial which was initially scheduled for March in Washington. A trial which will not take place, it is now certain, before the presidential election in November. Moreover, Donald Trump knows this perfectly well: he is already congratulating himself on his Truth Social network by highlighting a “great victory for democracy“.
Still, the ruling is also a defeat. The justices did not address the merits of the case. In the 119-page decision, which was rendered by six justices to three—six conservatives to three progressives—they wrote that a former president can benefit from criminal immunity only for decisions made in the course of his duties. They say there is a presumption of immunity for these official acts, but not for acts performed in a private capacity.
But Donald Trump wanted a “absolute immunity”according to his own expression. He believed that the Supreme Court should, and would, grant him this total immunity. He intended to simply cancel the charges against him following his famous speech on January 6, 2021, when he incited his supporters to invade the Capitol in Washington. But observers had sensed in the hearings that preceded this decision by the Supreme Court that the justices were rather reluctant. And the decision confirms it. The Supreme Court writes that it is up to a federal court in the capital to decide.
Finally, the billionaire is also playing for time and ruling out another trial before the presidential election on November 5. On the Joe Biden campaign side, however, people are denouncing a Trump who “thinks he is above the law“. The American president believes that the decision taken by the Supreme Court on the criminal immunity of Donald Trump creates a “dangerous precedent because the power (of the president) will no longer be limited by law.”
