The US Supreme Court will address the question of whether Donald Trump, as a former president, is immune from prosecution. The Supreme Court agreed to review the case on Wednesday and scheduled hearings for the week of April 22. This means that a trial against Trump for election manipulation, originally scheduled for March 4th, is on hold for the time being: the judges suspended the proceedings until the question of immunity has been clarified.
Trump had repeatedly demanded that this process – if at all – not begin until after the presidential election on November 5th. His lawyers are therefore relying on delaying tactics – and most commentators viewed the current Supreme Court decision as a success of their strategy.
The start of the proceedings over the ex-president’s attempts to retrospectively overturn his election defeat against current President Joe Biden in 2020 was previously scheduled for March 4th. The process would have begun in the middle of the Republican presidential primaries, in which Trump is the favorite.
However, the trial cannot take place without prior clarification of the issue of immunity. A Supreme Court decision is not expected until June. A federal appeals court had previously rejected Trump’s request for immunity from prosecution at the beginning of February, initially clearing the way for the trial.
The ex-president welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision. Without immunity, a president “cannot function properly or make decisions in the best interests of the United States of America,” the 77-year-old explained on his online platform Truth Social. “He must not allow himself to be guided by fear of retaliation!”
A possible immunity of a former US president has not yet been examined by the US judiciary – because before Trump, a former head of state had never been charged with a crime.
Trump was indicted by the federal judiciary at the beginning of August for his attempts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and thus stay in power. The ex-president’s lawyers counter that Trump enjoys “absolute immunity” and cannot be prosecuted for actions that occur during his term in the White House.
Former Republican MP and declared Trump opponent Liz Cheney expressed disappointment after the Supreme Court’s decision. The delay in the trial against Trump “suppresses important evidence that Americans deserve to hear,” Cheney said on the online service X. Ultimately, Trump tried to overturn an election result “and seize power,” Cheney wrote. “Our justice system must be able to bring him to justice before the next election.”
The Supreme Court is also examining the question of whether Trump can be excluded from his party’s primaries in the US state of Colorado. The Colorado Supreme Court ordered this because of Trump’s role in the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The former head of state was also initially excluded from the primaries in Maine and on Wednesday in the state of Illinois.
Trump has other massive problems with the judiciary. Just last week, he was sentenced to a $350 million fine in a New York civil trial for financial fraud because, together with his sons Donald Junior and Eric, he is said to have artificially inflated the assets of the family real estate empire by billions of dollars over the years. in order to get favorable conditions from banks and insurance companies.
Starting March 25, Trump will face a criminal trial in New York over the hush money payment to a former porn actress.
Trump wants to challenge US President Biden in the presidential election in November and, based on the way the primaries have gone so far, has the best chance of being nominated as a candidate again by the Republicans. In the presidential election on November 5th, everything boils down to another duel between Biden and Trump.
