Trump’s immunity bid over riot on Capitol Hill
THE US Supreme Court will today hear arguments on whether Donald Trump is immune from prosecution for his role in the deadly January 6 riots.
It will test if a former president can be charged for acts they did in the White House.
If the Republican hopeful is successful, two criminal cases – one regarding January 6 and another over the mishandling of classified documents – could be dropped.
Trump packed the court with favourable judges while in his time in office. In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden by seven million votes, he refused to accept the result and encouraged a mob to descend on Capitol Hill.
They stormed and vandalised the building while one rioter was
fatally shot trying to break in and potentially attack politicians.
Trump has since been charged by special counsel Jack Smith with conspiracy to defraud the US and obstruction of an official proceeding for his attempts to overturn the electoral vote count certifying his loss.
Lawyers for Trump will argue only a former president who was impeached and convicted by the Senate can be criminally prosecuted. He was impeached over his efforts to undo the election in the run-up to the attack on Capitol Hill in 2021.
But he was acquitted by the Senate Republican majority in 2021. Prosecutors say conviction in the Senate is not a prerequisite for a courtroom prosecution.
Trump’s lawyer has repeatedly drawn attention to a 1982 case, in which the Supreme Court held that a former president cannot be sued in civil cases for their actions while in office.
But Mr Smith’s team is likely to bring up a separate Supreme Court decision involving former leader Richard Nixon they say bolsters their case.
A 1974 opinion forced the president to turn over incriminating White House tapes for use in the prosecutions of his top aides.