The Supreme Court will consider Trump’s immunity claims from 2020 election prosecutions. Here are the details.

Washington – The Supreme Court is scheduled to consider Thursday Is former President Donald Trump entitled to blanket immunity from federal prosecution? The judge engaged in election-year politics for actions that occurred while in the White House with major implications for his legal and political future.

as .and be known Trump v. United StatesThe dispute, the second time this semester the U.S. Supreme Court has intervened in the legal process, raises an issue it has never faced before and will have consequences for former presidents and the president in November. election.

Its decision will be key in determining whether special counsel Jack Smith’s case against Trump can proceed to trial. A verdict in Trump’s favor would end the prosecution. But if Smith wins — as he did. lower court — and Trump’s immunity claim was rejected, with the case reopening after a months-long hiatus. It is not clear how quickly the case could be tried.

What is at stake in the Supreme Court case?

A victory for the special counsel would also be significant for Trump’s 2024 election, since he could order the Justice Department to drop the case if he returns to the White House.

“It’s been 236 years since the Constitution was enacted,” said Jonathan Entin, law professor emeritus at Case Western Reserve University. I know this is the first time a former president has been charged with a serious crime, so maybe that explains why it hasn’t happened sooner, but it’s the first time in our history that any former president has been charged with a serious crime. . People who lose re-election basically refuse to accept the fact that they have failed.”

In court battles, the court is tasked with deciding whether the doctrine of presidential immunity applies to prosecutions of crimes committed by former presidents while in office. The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority, with three justices appointed by Trump.

Arguments in the case, which will be the final hearing of the judge’s term, include multiple legal battles that directly and indirectly affect the case. Indirectly associated with TrumpLast March, the Supreme Court The state cannot ban Trump Starting on the 2024 ballot, using a rarely cited provision of the 14th Amendment, overturned big decision The Colorado Supreme Court found him unfit to serve as president.

The proceedings of the case are also going on Historical criminal justice Trump was charged in Manhattan with 34 state felonies for falsifying business records. The former president pleaded not guilty to the charges and tried unsuccessfully to have them overturned on immunity grounds. The judge overseeing his trial in New York denied his request for leave to attend oral arguments before the Supreme Court in Washington.

Trump’s immunity case

Thursday’s arguments stem from a federal grand jury’s four-count criminal indictment against Trump, accusing him of obstructing Joe Biden’s certificate of victory after the 2020 election. The former president pleaded not guilty to all counts last year, and the case remains on hold as the Supreme Court considers Trump’s claim of absolute immunity.

Two lower courts – including a unanimous three-judge appeals court panel in the nation’s capital – have rejected Trump’s argument that a previous term as president shields him from conduct related to his tenure as CEO. His lawyers asked the judge to overturn the verdict. The Panty Controversy Trump’s post-election actions were “official” in nature and therefore would not be considered a crime.

The justices rejected Smith’s request to let the appeals court ruling stand “whether a former president enjoys presidential immunity from matters involving criminal prosecution during his term of office.” In the office. “

In 1982, the Supreme Court ruled that the president was immune from civil liability for acts undertaken within the “peripheral” scope of his official duties. But whether such immunity extends to criminal trials has never before been considered.

Trump is the first former president in US history to face criminal charges and one of his accusers in Washington Four cases are under investigation – Two in federal court and two in state court. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and claimed the prosecution was politically motivated.

His legal team says his trial is unprecedented and proves the president is immune from criminal charges.

“From 1789 to 2023, no president, past or present, has faced criminal charges for his official conduct and for good cause,” Trump’s lawyers told the court in a filing last month. cannot observe and the office of the President itself cannot maintain its important independence.”

Trump’s attorney, D. John Sauer, will argue the case in court. He is likely to repeat his earlier claim that the former president’s actions described in the special counsel’s indictment between the 2020 presidential election and the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol were conducted in lieu of his powers as president. Candidates for public office. .

“Once our nation crosses the Rubicon, every future president will face de facto blackmail and extortion while in office and will be criticized for his most sensitive and controversial decisions after leaving office,” Sauer told the Supreme Court and is being harassed by politically motivated lawsuits. “This bleak outlook will result in a weak and hollow presidency that will be disastrous for the entire American political system.”

The former president’s lawyers also claim that the president can only be prosecuted if he is first impeached by the House of Representatives and convicted by the Senate. Trump is Impeached by the House of Representatives An article that incites protests following the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, but Acquitted by the Senate.

But the special counsel successfully urged lower courts to hold the opposite view: the Constitution does not grant the president absolute immunity from criminal prosecution, especially in the conduct of personal campaigns.

A Brief filed in Supreme Court Earlier this month, prosecutors argued that “the president’s powers in this case do not entitle the president to claim immunity from the common federal criminal sanctions that support the charges: fraud against the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding, and impeachment.” “Correct”.

Smith claimed that Trump was engaged in a multifaceted conspiracy to subvert the handover of presidential power and that all of his actions were aimed at achieving a personal goal: re-election.

Smith’s team member and former Deputy Attorney General Michael Driben will present arguments in court Thursday. The special counsel claimed in court documents that Trump’s alleged conduct “undermines key constitutional provisions that protect democracy.”

The special counsel told the judges that there are “layered safeguards” in bringing criminal cases “to ensure that cases are screened against strict standards and that no president is required to abridge his duties by knowing he is under the law.” ” If he commits a federal crime he will be prosecuted. “

Smith’s team directly contradicted Trump’s lawyers’ claim that the charges against the former president lacked historical legal precedent, writing: “The absence of any prosecution of the former president prior to this case does not reflect an understanding of the president’s immunity from criminal liability; Instead it emphasizes the unprecedented nature of the applicant’s alleged conduct.”

Even as a judge ruled that the former president could not be criminally charged for official conduct, prosecutors wrote that Trump’s alleged conduct, as described in the indictment, was “a private scheme with private actors to achieve a private end: Petitioners attempted to proceed by fraud.” Take responsibility”.

The special counsel told the court that the alleged plan to overturn the results of the presidential election was “an example of conduct that should not be condoned, or even other conduct.”

Go back to the Supreme Court

Although the Supreme Court ultimately rejected Trump’s arguments and cleared the way for his trial, the decision to hear the case initially delayed proceedings for months.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the case, previously scheduled a trial for March, but Throw away that schedule The D.C. Circuit considered the immunity plea instead.

take a sip December rules Trump’s claimed immunity was invalid, writing, “America only has one CEO at a time, and that position does not give him a ‘get out of jail free’ pass for life.”

Smith’s team appealed against the ruling to speed up the process Ask the Supreme Court Bypassing the D.C. Circuit and taking the unusual step of considering immunity issues before the appellate court rules.

the judge Request rejected And the DC Circuit chose to hear and rule on the case first.

After a three-judge panel unanimously ruled against Trump earlier this year, Smith asked the court to uphold the decision and decline to consider the matter further. Although the Supreme Court decided to intervene, it did so sooner than usual, with the justices likely to rule by the end of June.

Antin of Case Western Reserve University said that while the Supreme Court did not act as quickly as Smith had hoped, it was still under time pressure and could draw a clear line between official and private conduct that a president could cover. Immunization is a difficult task.

“From an institutional perspective, there are good reasons for the court to rule narrower than what President Trump has sought,” he said.

Antin said Trump’s argument for blanket immunity is difficult to reconcile with the law and historical record.

“Accepting Trump’s argument in this case means the president is above the law,” he said. “They never really took responsibility for their actions, and I find it hard to believe that the Supreme Court would say that.”