Donald Trump has been hailed as a “major victory” for democracy with a Supreme Court ruling granting him partial immunity from criminal prosecution.
The judges found that the president has immunity for “official acts” but not for “unofficial acts” and sent the matter back to the trial judge.
Monday’s ruling will further delay criminal prosecutions against Trump over alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election that led to Joe Biden’s victory.
A spokesperson for Biden’s reelection campaign responded angrily: “They just handed the keys to a dictatorship to Donald Trump.”
The trial judge must now determine what actions Trump took as president, which could take months. Any trial is unlikely to begin before the November election.
This is a huge boost for Donald Trump – a “huge victory,” as he put it on social media platform Truth Social.
The Supreme Court ruled that all former presidents enjoy partial immunity from criminal prosecution – full immunity applies to acts performed as part of the president’s official duties but excludes “unofficial acts” performed in a private capacity.
Lower court judges must now decide which aspects of the president’s conduct are relevant to a criminal prosecution in which he is accused of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Trump is accused of inciting the riots at the U.S. Capitol through his tweets and remarks on January 6, 2021. But the court ruled that his remarks and social media activities that day were official acts.
The Supreme Court’s three liberal justices strongly dissented from the decision. “The president is now a king above the law,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said.
A White House spokesman expressed President Biden’s view that “no one is above the law.”
Democratic Congresswoman Judy Chu said the impact of the court’s decision will be far-reaching.
“This is a victory for Donald Trump and a real blow to American democracy. The implications of this decision are enormous. If a president in any official capacity says they want to do something that we consider inappropriate and criminal, he be immune from the actions he took,” she said.
The court’s six-to-three ruling – a landmark decision along partisan lines – does not dismiss the charges against the former president, but it will significantly delay any trial – if it is to proceed – until Well after the November 5 election.
The ruling would also apply to other pending criminal indictments against Donald Trump involving top-secret documents found at his Florida home, as well as a case in Georgia where he is accused of conspiring to overturn his narrow election victory in that state. Advantage lost.
