The Supreme Court has handed down its decision in a key ruling
“The nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution” for official acts taken as president, however he is not immune for “unofficial acts”, wrote Chief Justice John Roberts.
The document stipulates that courts would need to distinguish between what were official and unofficial actions. It will send Trump’s immunity case back to a lower court in Washington, dimming prospect of a pre-election trial The Supreme Court’s decision was split along ideological lines, with the conservative justices leading the six to three split decision.claiming that a president has absolute immunitySpecial counsel Jack Smith countered that only sitting presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution, and that Trump’s expansive interpretation would “free the President from virtually all criminal law — even crimes such as bribery, murder, treason, and sedition”.
“Whatever immunities a sitting President may enjoy, the United States has only one Chief Executive at a time, and that position does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass. Former Presidents enjoy no special conditions on their federal criminal liability,” US District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the case, wrote in a December decision.
“Defendant’s four-year service as Commander in Chief did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens,” she added.
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