Was Donald Trump protected by presidential immunity when he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election? The U.S. Supreme Court declined to urgently rule on the issue Friday, a boon for the Republican who hopes to delay the start of his trial.
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The tempestuous billionaire, a candidate for election at the end of 2024, will have to be assessed from March 4 for his pressure in the last presidential election.
His lawyers, who are trying by all means to delay the start of his trial so that it does not coincide with the election calendar, claim that Donald Trump enjoys “absolute immunity” for his actions while in office. White House. And that he should not be convicted for this reason.
Judge Tanya Chutkan, who will preside over this federal case against Donald Trump, rejected an initial request for immunity in early December on the grounds that no text protected a former president from criminal prosecution.
Donald Trump's lawyers appealed that decision and asked the appeals court to rule on the issue. However, this additional step could take many weeks and ultimately risks postponing the start of the former president's trial.
In mid-December, federal prosecutor Jack Smith filed an appeal with the United States Supreme Court, asking the highest court in the land to rule on the matter directly without waiting for the appeals court.
Which the Supreme Court with a conservative majority rejected on Friday because it was largely overhauled by Donald Trump.
Similar attempts to invoke presidential immunity for Donald Trump have been rejected by judges, but the temple of American law has never directly said whether a former head of state enjoys immunity from prosecution.
The case law is all the more unclear because Donald Trump is the first former president of the United States to be criminally charged.
The Republican billionaire is preparing for an extraordinary year in every respect, marked by back and forth between the courts and campaign platforms.