For the first time ever, the Supreme Court of the United States will decide whether an American president has absolute immunity from prosecution.
A decision in the Supreme Court would be prejudicial and affect both sitting and future presidents. The answer also has great significance for the four criminal charges brought against former President Donald Trump.
On Thursday, the nine justices of the United States Supreme Court heard the arguments from the prosecutor’s side and Trump’s lawyers.
“Great and eternal danger”
The tone was turned up. The hearing was supposed to last for an hour, but dragged on considerably when both sides received tough counter-questions from the judges.
– If we say ‘no criminal liability, Mr President, you can do whatever you want’, I fear there will be worse problems than the president feeling compelled to follow the law, says Ketanji Brown Jackson, judge of the US Supreme Court , in the courtroom.
– I do not agree, because such a system as you describe we have had for 234 years, answers Trump’s lawyer John Sauer.
Trump himself has previously written that it is impossible for a president to carry out his duties without immunity.
“IT INCLUDES GREAT AND ETERNAL DANGER FOR AMERICA,” he wrote, in capital letters, on his own platform Truth Social.
Could mean partial victory
According to TV4’s US correspondent Tomas Kvarnkullen, the signals that came from the courtroom today indicate that they will not follow Trump’s line, namely to give him total immunity from prosecution.
But it could still mean a partial victory for Trump. The hearing is mainly about Trump’s attempt to have the 2020 election results annulled – and the subsequent storming of the Capitol.
That trial is believed to have a major impact on Trump’s chances in the presidential election in November, and his lawyers have therefore tried by all means to have it annulled or postponed until after the presidential election.
If the case is sent back to a lower court, they would probably succeed in doing just that.
– Few believe that it can be held before the presidential election in November, says Tomas Kvarnkullen.