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Donald Trump appealed to the Supreme Court here on February 24 against his ineligibility to run in the 2024 presidential election in several states.
UNITED STATES – Small victory for Donald Trump. The US Supreme Court decided on Wednesday, February 28, to investigate the case of the ex-president, who is seeking criminal immunity while being accused of trying to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The Supreme Court will have to decide in the coming months whether the billionaire can actually be prosecuted for his role in the affair in which he is accused. To avoid a trial with a potentially explosive outcome, he assures him that he can enjoy immunity because he was president at the time of the events.
According to the American agency Associated Press (AP), the highest judicial authority is scheduled to hear the parties in the week of April 22 and make its decision by the end of June at the latest. As a result, his trial in Washington was postponed for an equal amount of time, to the great dismay of Judge Tanya Chutkan, who wanted to resolve the case quickly.
Donald Trump is buying time
Given the numerous court cases launched by Donald Trump, she removed the March 4 date – the date on which the trial was scheduled to begin – from the court calendar without specifying a new one. We now know that the billionaire cannot be prosecuted until at least the month of May. And perhaps never, if the conservative-majority court decides to grant Donald Trump immunity.
The Supreme Court's announcement is a (half) blessing for the former president, for whom any gain in time is beneficial. He wants to avoid at all costs being sentenced to a heavy fine before the November election, in which he will most likely face Joe Biden, because voters could sanction him. If elected, he would be protected from justice for the duration of his term and could even pardon himself to permanently avoid any prosecution.
The institution nevertheless listened to prosecutor Jack Smith's request. He called on the court, if it decides to investigate the case, to set an accelerated timetable to then allow Donald Trump's conviction. The “unique national significance of this criminal case” required this, he believed.
Donald Trump's defense is claiming “absolute immunity” for his actions while in the White House, citing 1980s case law on civil suits against former President Richard Nixon. It remains to be seen whether the Supreme Court will agree that this also applies to law enforcement.
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