WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is set to rule Monday on whether former President Donald Trump should presidential immunity it would protect him from prosecution for attempting to nullify the 2020 elections.
The judges left the high-profile case to make a final decision a day before the summer break. It was the latter who disputed the term.
Three more cases will come up on Monday, two involving Republican-backed state laws seeking to regulate social media platforms and another over how companies can challenge the federal agency’s creation of rules.
The court decided on Friday Jan. 6 in a separate case involving criminal prosecution, but the narrow ruling is unlikely to have much impact on the former president’s criminal case.
In August 2023, Trump was indicted by special counsel Jack Smith on three counts of conspiracy to “defraud the United States by using dishonesty, fraud, and deceit” to interfere with the election process; “obstructing the meeting of Congress on January 6 to count and approve the tallied results of the presidential election”; and works “against the right to vote and have those votes counted.”
Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges. He claims persecution is political and organized by his rivals to thwart his attempt to return to power.
Trump asked for the case to be dismissed, arguing that he was protected by “absolute immunity” because he was president during the actions involved in the indictment. He claimed that his actions were official actions that could not be prosecuted.
The special counsel’s office has opposed scrutiny of these official actions by the criminal justice system.
During oral arguments, the court hinted that it might send the case back to a lower court for an evidentiary hearing on whether his actions amounted to official acts. Such a decision would certainly delay the case from going before a jury until after the November election.
In a separate case, Trump was indicted by a New York jury in May on charges of falsifying business documents related to hush money payments to a porn star in the final days of the 2016 election. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11.
Trump still faces charges in two other pending cases, including one filed by Smith over classified documents seized after he left office. Georgia Attorney General Fanny Willis also charged him with trying to overturn the 2020 election, but that case was mired in allegations that he had an affair with a prosecutor he hired to work in his office. Trump pleaded not guilty in these cases either.