SC not sure about Trump’s immunity claim in riots case

WASHINGTON: The Supreme Court seems highly sceptical of former President Donald Trump’s claim of absolute immunity from prosecution, but it’s less clear that the justices are headed for a quick resolution.

Chief Justice John Roberts was among five members of the court on Thursday who appeared to reject the claim of absolute immunity that would stop special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of Trump on charges he conspired to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Arguments were in their second hour by late morning.

The timing of the Supreme Court’s decision could be as important as the outcome. Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, has been pushing to delay the trial until after the November election, and the later the justices issue their decision, the more likely he is to succeed. Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, two of Trump’s three high court appointees, suggested that former presidents might have some immunity and that in this case, lower courts might have to sort out whether that applied to Trump. That could further delay a trial.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the other Trump appointee, seemed less open to arguments advanced by Trump lawyer D. John Sauer.

Smith’s team is asking for a speedy resolution. The court typically issues its last opinions by the end of June, about four months before the election. Trump, the first former president charged with crimes, had said he wanted to be at the Supreme Court on Thursday.

Instead, he was in a courtroom in New York, where he is standing trial on charges that he falsified business records to keep damaging information from voters when he directed hush money payments to a former porn star to keep quiet her claims that they had a sexual encounter.

Lower courts have rejected those arguments, including a unanimous three-judge panel on an appeals court in Washington, DC.