Monday saw a rare legal win for former U.S. president Donald Trump, who the United States Supreme Court ruled has partial immunity from criminal prosecution over actions taken while he was in office.
In a divided ruling—along partisan lines—judges at America’s highest court said that a former president has substantial immunity from prosecution for ‘official acts’ committed while in office, but not for ‘unofficial acts.’ This will protect Trump from most of the charges brought against him by the U.S. government over allegations that he tried to overturn the 2020 election result.
This means that Trump’s interactions with the Department of Justice over the 2020 election have absolute protection against prosecution. Reports say that other ‘official acts,’ such as Trump’s discussions with his then-vice president Mike Pence, have “at least presumptive immunity.”
But ‘unofficial acts,’ meaning statements made in a personal capacity, carry no immunity. The court did, however, rule that “most of his public communications are likely to fall comfortably within the outer perimeter of his official responsibilities,” which suggests that even some of Trump’s tweets could count as ‘official acts.’
Both political sides responded as one would expect them to, with Trump hailing a “big win for our Constitution and for democracy” and President Joe Biden—fresh out of an horrific performance in last week’s debate, which has been the topic of conversation since—saying it set a “dangerous precedent” by undermining the rule of law.
Most significantly, The Week highlights that the Supreme Court decision “largely closes the door on the possibility that Donald Trump will go to trial on election interference charges before this November’s vote.”
This is likely to offer a major boost in momentum for the Trump team, with the ruling giving—as the Wall Street Journal put it—its leader “almost everything he could have hoped for.”
Trump’s federal case will now be delayed, and he could, if he gains re-election, “order the Justice Department to drop the charges” altogether, said The New York Times.
