The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that former President Donald Trump enjoys “absolute” immunity from prosecution for “official acts” made while in office, the New York Post reports.
The court’s 6 to 3 ruling last week has allowed Trump’s legal team to make more appeals that could delay the scheduling of the 2020 election case against him for months or years if it is not dropped completely.
“The President enjoys no immunity for his unofficial acts, and not everything the President does is official,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. “The President is not above the law. But Congress may not criminalize the President’s conduct in carrying out the responsibilities of the Executive Branch under the Constitution.”
“The President therefore may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled, at a minimum, to a presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts,” he added. “That immunity applies equally to all occupants of the Oval Office, regardless of politics, policy, or party.”
Trump is accused of attempting “to defraud the United States by using dishonesty, fraud and deceit” to obstruct the electoral vote process, “impede the January 6 congressional proceeding at which the collected results of the presidential election are counted and certified” and working “against the right to vote and to have that vote counted.”
The Trump camp said that his efforts were “official acts” that were protected by his office. Special counsel Jack Smith argued that his efforts are still subject to criminal prosecution.
Last year, presiding U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected Trump’s “immunity” claim, which was later upheld in February by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.
This is good news for Trump and his presidential campaign. His lawyers only needed to delay the case due to November’s election, which they succeeded at. If he is reelected, he could have the DOJ unravel all of the federal cases against him, in theory.
Though it has never been attempted, there is the possibility that Trump could also pardon himself.
“We’ve never answered whether a president can do that,” Justice Neil Gorsuch said. “Happily, it’s never been presented to us.”
Smith is still prosecuting the former president in the Mar-a-Lago case, in which the DOJ accused him of illegally keeping several classified documents after leaving the White House. That case has also been called into question after it was discovered that the DOJ planted evidence, as reported by Resist The Mainstream.
Trump is also facing charges in Georgia, where he faces a 10-count racketeering indictment for 2020 election tampering, which he has pled not guilty to.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
