The US President is immune from prosecution in some areas – the Supreme Court has just ruled this. The Republicans are celebrating – and are going on the attack.
This decision has the potential to change the course of history: A US president cannot be prosecuted for crimes committed in the performance of his official duties – this was just decided by the highest court in the United States. It is a surprising victory for the Trump camp. “It’s like Christmas,” a lawyer close to Trump told Rolling Stone.
Trump camp is itself taken by surprise
Trump’s lawyers had argued for his immunity, but initially with a different goal: The demand for absolute immunity from prosecution was actually only intended to delay several cases against Trump so long that they could only be decided after the presidential election on November 5 of this year. Once he was president again, the calculation went, Trump would have been able to end the proceedings or pardon himself.
Trump’s lawyers and advisers had not expected that the Supreme Court would now partially agree with their argument. “Should we send John Roberts a muffin basket?” joked a person from Trump’s immediate circle, apparently alluding to the judge in charge.
Republicans are confident
Officially, the Republicans’ stance sounds quite different, of course. The decision is “a gigantic victory, not only for Donald Trump, but for the rule of law,” Republican Senator from Ohio, JD Vance, told the New York Times.
The verdict is “another setback for the Democrats’ illegal and unconstitutional crusade to criminalize dissent, imprison political opponents, impose authoritarian rule, and replace democracy with a deep state,” Trump adviser Stephen Miller said.
“This is crazy,” said Senate Speaker Mike Johnson, refuting fears that future presidents could use immunity in office to their advantage. “There are a lot of exaggerations today. These fantasies that they have come up with that future presidents could become contract killers,” he said. This was precisely the example given by Sonia Sotomayor, one of the Supreme Court justices who spoke out against the decision to grant Trump immunity during his presidency.
Other Republican lawmakers echoed the same sentiment, saying that Democrats were “weaponizing” the court system to harm the unpopular candidate Trump.
Fear of the consequences
It’s not just the Democrats who see things differently. President Joe Biden spoke of a “dangerous precedent.” He sees “no limits to what a president can do,” he said in a speech at the White House. “This is a fundamentally new situation.”
The Constitutional Court itself was also divided on this issue. Three of the judges voted against it and confirmed their position in their own statement. This law makes the president “a king above the law,” says the statement written by Judge Sotomayor. “In practice, the court is creating a legal vacuum around the president, thereby disrupting the status quo that has existed since the founding of the United States.”
Expert on Trump verdict: “Changes the presidency in an incredible way”
Quick consequences
The fact that Trump’s team fully understands the significance of the decision is demonstrated by the plans they quickly drew up to use it. In the hours following the ruling, advisers are said to have been intoxicated by how they could use the freedom of action they had gained to implement Trump’s sometimes extreme plans for his second term in office.
Trump’s advisers and lawyers quickly began to incorporate the arguments underlying the decision into their defense for the pending election fraud proceedings.
The first direct consequence has already occurred: in a letter to the responsible judge, just hours after the Constitutional Court’s ruling, Donald Trump requested that his conviction in the hush money trial from last month be overturned. He was found guilty on all 34 counts. The sentence is actually scheduled to be announced on July 11.
Sources:Rolling Stone, New York Times, CNN, The Hill
