A new compromising phone call; a favorable announcement from the Supreme Court for his candidacy in the Republican primaries. The legal saga of former US President Donald Trump, for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, experienced new twists and turns in the United States on Friday.
First, the US Supreme Court announced on Friday that it refused to rule urgently to determine whether he was protected by presidential immunity when he tried to invalidate the results of the 2020 election.
Among the many cases brought before the courts against him, the billionaire must be tried at the federal level from March 4 for his pressure during the last presidential election.
But to promote his campaign to be elected Republican candidate at the end of the party’s primaries from January to June, then president of the country in November, his lawyers are trying by all means to shift his judicial calendar.
For the March 4 trial, his counsel thus invoked the argument that Donald Trump enjoys “absolute immunity” for all the acts he committed while he was in the White House. And that he should not, for this reason, be prosecuted.
Then, in mid-December, in the hope of speeding things up, federal prosecutor Jack Smith, responsible for the case, appealed to the United States Supreme Court, asking it to decide this question. What the highest court, with a conservative majority after having been largely overhauled by Donald Trump, refused to do on Friday.
An important question
Due to the Supreme Court’s announcement on Friday, “there is little chance that the trial [du 4 mars] can be concluded before the presidential election,” explains the researcher associated with the Raoul-Dandurand Chair, Amélie Escobar, in an interview.
Thus, “we risk being confronted with a situation where Donald Trump can go through with his candidacy and the electoral process,” she believes.
However, in the event that Donald Trump were once again elected as head of the United States, he would find himself in a position, in theory, to “self-pardon” thanks to his presidential powers, points out the researcher, a completely unprecedented situation. .
“What will his powers be next? To continue the trials? To have them canceled? We have never experienced this situation in history, so we do not know what the outcome and consequences could be,” explains Amélie Escobar.
A new compromising recording
To complete an already busy day on the legal level for the ex-president, the newspaper The Detroit News released a new recording where he can be heard putting pressure on Republican officials in Michigan to dissuade them from validating the results of the presidential election in that state, on November 17, 2020.
The two targeted electoral agents had just voted to certify the results of the presidential election in Wayne County, where Democrat Joe Biden came in well ahead.
“We have to fight for our country”, “we can’t let these people steal our country”, she can be heard telling electoral agents during the call in which the president of the Republican National Committee also took part. , Ronna McDaniel, originally from Michigan.
“If you can, go home tonight, don’t sign the document […]. We will find you lawyers,” she said, for her part, referring to the official results of the vote in the county.
After nodding, Mr. Trump added: “We will take care of it.” »
The two officials then left the certification meeting without signing the document. The next day, they tried unsuccessfully to reverse their vote in favor of certification, claiming to have been pressured, reports The Detroit News.
“What I publicly said and repeated at the time […] is that there was ample evidence that warranted an audit,” said Ronna McDaniel, in a statement, in reaction to the publication of this recording.
Mr. Trump’s campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, for his part told the newspaper that the ex-president intended to “scrupulously ensure compliance with the laws and guarantee the integrity of the election, including by investigating on the rigged and stolen 2020 presidential election.”
This call is very similar to the one made by Donald Trump to a senior electoral official in Georgia during the same period, and which led to accusations of undue pressure under an anti-gang law in that state, points out the science professor American-Canadian politician Graham Dodds.
“Georgia was probably not the only place where he allegedly committed such actions,” he argues.
With Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press