SCOTUS Gives Trump Hope on Presidential Immunity

Thursday was a big day for Donald Trump and his quest to have presidential immunity toss several charges he is facing in these federal indictments.

I have to admit, the arguments did not go as I thought they would, but for Trump, that is really good news.

After reviewing the argument, I believe this case will be remanded to the appellate court to decide whether Trump’s actions were part of his presidential duties or those of a private citizen trying to overturn election results.

Good Day for Trump

I was certain the court would first decide whether Trump's actions were connected to his presidential duties, but Chief Justice Roberts sounded as though he wanted the appellate court to decide that issue.

During arguments, Roberts even told prosecutors that he was inclined to kick the case back to decide that issue before proceeding any further, which would be a death blow to Jack Smith’s cases in terms of having them tried before the election.

Another big blow for the DOJ on this front was the subject of an administration prosecuting its main competition, a point brought about by Justice Alito.

Alito stated, "If an incumbent who loses a very close, hotly contested election knows that a real possible after leaving office is not that the president is going to be able to go off into a peaceful retirement, but that the president may be criminally prosecuted by a bitter political opponent, will that not lead us into a cycle that destabilizes the functioning of our country as a democracy?

“And we can look around the world and find countries where we have seen this process, where the loser gets thrown in jail.”

John Shu, a constitutional scholar and former official in both Bush administrations, also addressed this, stating, "It's a very important issue and the Biden administration set a very bad precedent to go after not only a former president, but one who also is challenging Biden’s re-election.

"What the Biden administration has done here gives the terrible appearance of vindictiveness, and on an international or foreign policy level, it makes us look like just another banana republic that we generally criticize for prosecuting or trying to jail their political opponents.”

In terms of the outlook, this could not have been a better day for Trump, with the ideal situation being the court announcing in June that it wants to kick the case back to the appellate court to first decide on Trump’s actions.

Once that is done, the court can then address whether presidential immunity can be applied to those specific acts.

This, of course, will all take time, time that Jack Smith and Democrats do not have if they want to see Trump prosecuted before voters head the polls in November.