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WASHINGTON: The Supreme Court’s conservative justices signaled support on Thursday for U.S. presidents having some level of protection from criminal charges for certain acts taken in office as it tackled Donald Trump’s claim of immunity from prosecution for trying to undo his 2020 election loss.
The majority of the justices did not seem inclined to accept Trump’s most expansive claim during the roughly two-and-a-half hours of the case’s arguments, which was that presidents have “absolute immunity” for official acts. This claim seemed to crumble when hypothetical questions about selling nuclear secrets, accepting bribes, or directing a coup or political assassination were posed.
However, the nation’s top court’s conservative justices, who have a 6-3 majority, expressed worry that presidents would not have some kind of immunity, particularly for less heinous crimes. However, following debates over the breadth of the president’s authority, the specifics of such a decision remained unclear.
In an attempt to win back the presidency this year, Trump filed an appeal after lower courts denied his request to be exempted from four criminal charges relating to the election because he was president at the time he did the actions that resulted in the indictment obtained by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Though the special counsel’s accusations against Trump might be limited by the Supreme Court’s final decision, it seemed like at least some of the indictment will stand. If, on the other hand, the Supreme Court directs lower courts to decide how to implement its recently developed interpretation of immunity, the ruling may postpone Trump’s trial much longer. Smith was present at the disputes.
Judge Samuel Alito, a conservative, stated that presidents in office when they are not re-elected will find themselves in a “peculiarly precarious position” if they are subject to retaliatory prosecution by the next government.
“Will that not lead us into a cycle that destabilizes the functioning of our country as a democracy?” Alito questioned Smith’s attorney, Michael Dreeben.
“We can look around the world and find countries where we have seen this process where the loser gets thrown in jail,” said Alito.
Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative, expressed worry about presidents being unfairly prosecuted in the absence of immunity.
“You know how easy it is in many cases for a prosecutor to get a grand jury to bring an indictment. And reliance on the good faith of the prosecutor may not be enough in some cases,” Roberts told Dreeben while indicating he was not suggesting Trump’s indictment in this case was improper.
Trump, the Republican candidate challenging Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 5 election in a rematch from four years ago, is the first former US president to be criminally prosecuted.
He has pleaded not guilty in this case and in three other criminal cases, including an ongoing trial on New York state charges related to hush money paid to a porn star shortly before the 2016 US election that made him president. Trump did not attend the arguments because he was in a Manhattan courtroom in the hush money case.
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