WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court will rule Monday on whether former President Donald Trump has sweeping presidential immunity that would protect him from prosecution for attempting to overturn the 2020 election.
The judges postponed the high-profile case until their final decision on the day before the summer recess. It was the latter who argued this term.
Three other cases are due on Monday. Two of them involve Republican-backed state laws aimed at regulating social media platforms. The other concerns when companies can challenge federal agency regulations.
On Friday, the court ruled in a separate case involving the January 6 criminal charges. However, this narrow ruling is unlikely to have much impact on the former president’s criminal case.
Trump was indicted by special counsel Jac Smit in August 2023 with participation in three criminal conspiracies: “to defraud the United States by using dishonesty, fraud, and deception” to interfere with the electoral process; “to obstruct the January 6 congressional proceedings counting and certifying the collated presidential election results”; and working “against the right to vote and to have that vote counted.”
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He claims the persecution is political and orchestrated by his opponents to hinder his bid to return to power.
Trump wanted the case dismissed. He claimed that because he was president at the time of the actions alleged in the indictment, he was protected by “absolute immunity.” He argued that his actions constitute official acts that cannot be prosecuted.
The special counsel’s office has countered that these official acts are subject to oversight by the criminal justice system.
During oral arguments, the court indicated that it could send the case back to a lower court to hear evidentiary hearings on whether his actions constituted official acts. Such a decision would undoubtedly delay the case before it goes before a jury before the November election.
In a separate case, Trump was convicted by a New York jury in May on charges of falsifying business records in connection with hush-money payments to a porn star in the final days of the 2016 election. He is expected to be sentenced July 11.
Trump still faces charges in two other pending cases, including one brought by Smith over classified documents taken from his possession after he left office. Georgia Attorney General Fani Willis also charged him in connection with the effort to overturn the 2020 election, but that case has been mired by allegations that she had an affair with a prosecutor she hired to work with her office. Trump has also pleaded not guilty in those cases.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
