The Supreme Court will hear arguments in April on whether Donald Trump has immunity from prosecution on criminal charges that he conspired to remain in office after the 2020 election.
Oral arguments are set for the week of April 22.
But the high court has in the meantime stayed an appellate court mandate that overwhelmingly concluded that Trump did not have immunity.
The stay will further delay any start of the trial in the D.C. criminal case, where the former president faces four conspiracy counts related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election that ultimately led to the attack on the Capitol on January 6th. The district court has put a trial on hold as Trump’s legal team pursues its claims of immunity, and the Supreme Court’s scheduling raises the possibility that the trial and verdict won’t occur before the November election.
Read the Supreme Court’s order.
A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit rejected Trump’s claims of immunity in a decision earlier this month.
The appellate judges wrote, “Former President Trump’s alleged efforts to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election were, if proven, an unprecedented assault on the structure of our government. He allegedly injected himself into a process in which the President has no role — the counting and certifying of the Electoral College votes — thereby undermining constitutionally established procedures and the will of Congress. To immunize former President Trump’s actions would ‘further … aggrandize the presidential office, already so potent and so relatively immune from judicial review, at the expense of Congress.’”
The Supreme Court already is considering whether Trump can be prohibited from a state’s ballot given the 14th Amendment. That includes a clause restricting those who have engaged in an insurrection from holding public office.
More to come.
