While the criminal trial of former American President Donald Trump (2017-2021) related to the alleged payment to a porn actress continues in New York, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments this Thursday (25) in Washington in a process in which the Republican asks for presidential immunity so as not to be judged in another case: which determines whether he was responsible for the invasion of his supporters at the Capitol in January 2021.
Trump’s defense maintains that he had immunity because he was still president when the riot occurred. If the Supreme Court agrees with this thesis, the decision could have effects on the former president’s other criminal trials.
According to information from the Reuters agency and CNN, the Supreme Court judges this Thursday oscillated between showing sympathy and resistance to Trump’s demand.
Conservative Justice Samuel Alito highlighted that a complete denial of presidential immunity would place American presidents in a “peculiarly precarious position.”
“If a sitting president who loses a hard-fought election knows that a real possibility after leaving office is not that the president might retire peacefully, but that he might be criminally prosecuted by a spiteful opposing politician, that will not lead us to to a cycle that destabilizes the functioning of our country as a democracy?” asked Alito.
“And we can look around the world and find countries where we have seen this process where the loser [da eleição] is arrested”, added the judge.
In turn, progressive judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, appointed by President Joe Biden, stated that in a “common” case there would be a trial even if the defendant had immunity for certain actions.
“There are sufficient allegations in the indictment, in the prosecution’s opinion, that fall within the group of ‘private acts’ [em contraponto a ‘atos
oficiais’ do presidente] so the case should be allowed to proceed,” Jackson said.
The Supreme Court is expected to announce its decision on Trump’s immunity request by the end of June. One possibility is that the request is sent back to lower courts, where it has already been denied, which led the president to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Still, this would be beneficial for Trump, as there would hardly be time for a trial in the Capitol case before the presidential election, scheduled for November 5th.
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