(AFP) – The US Supreme Court on Wednesday set April 25 as the date to hear Donald Trump’s claim that as a former president he is immune from criminal prosecution.
Trump, 77, the all-but-certain 2024 Republican presidential nominee, had been scheduled to go on trial in Washington this week for conspiring to subvert the results of the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden. But the proceedings have been frozen as his presidential immunity claim wound its way through the courts.
Special Counsel Jack Smith filed the election conspiracy case against Trump in August and had been pushing hard for the March start date for his trial. But lawyers for the former president have sought repeatedly to delay the trial until after the November presidential election, when Trump could potentially have all of the federal cases against him dropped if he wins.
The nation’s highest court accepted the high-stakes case at the end of February and had said at the time it would schedule oral arguments for the week of April 22. In agreeing to hear the immunity case, the conservative-dominated Supreme Court, which includes three justices nominated by Trump himself, said it was not “expressing a view on the merits” of a lower court’s ruling that rejected his immunity claim. It said it would address the question of whether a former president has “immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office.”
A ruling is expected by the end of the court’s current term in June or early July. The question of whether an ex-president is immune from prosecution is an untested one in American jurisprudence because until Trump, a former president had never been charged with a crime.
The Supreme Court has historically been loath to get involved in political questions, but it is taking center stage in this year’s White House race. On Monday, the court removed a potential hurdle to Trump’s bid to recapture the White House, unanimously dismissing a state court ruling that could have barred him from the ballot. The question before the nine justices was whether Trump was ineligible to appear on the Republican presidential primary ballot in Colorado because he engaged in an insurrection — the January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol by his supporters. Trump was impeached by the Democratic-majority House of Representatives for inciting an insurrection but was acquitted thanks to Republican support in the Senate.
He is scheduled to go on trial in New York on March 25 on charges of covering up hush money payments to a porn star ahead of the 2016 election. Among other cases, Trump also faces federal charges in Florida of refusing to give up top secret documents after leaving the White House.
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