Donald Trump’s legal strategy is to stall and delay all prosecutions and slip into the White House before the long arm of the law catches up with him. On Thursday, that strategy likely reaped its biggest victory yet.
The Supreme Court had convened on Thursday to hear oral arguments on the question of whether Trump enjoys legal immunity for his actions as president.
His defense claims he does.
A president cannot make quick and decisive decisions if he has to constantly worry about being indicted as soon as he leaves the White House, according to Trump’s defense lawyers.
– Should be president Obama charged with murder for ordering deadly raids overseas against terrorists with US citizenship?
No, was the defense’s response to its own rhetorical question. The drone raids were measures taken in the line of duty, the defense argues.
The liberal judge Sonya Sotomayor however, wondered whether a president who decides to assassinate a political rival is also considered to have acted in his role as president and therefore has immunity.
Trump’s lawyers made it clear that the immunity applies even then.
The decision is delayed
The prosecutor looked at the issue from a diametrically opposite perspective and believes that no president can be above the law. A situation where a president sits in the White House knowing that no actions are criminal is unsustainable, according to the prosecutor.
In other words, one side believes in full immunity, while the other advocates zero immunity.
The judges, it turned out, seem to place themselves somewhere in between.
A decision is not expected until later this spring or even the end of June.
It is not possible to know how the verdict will turn out. On the other hand, the experts on Thursday were quite unanimous in their judgment that it is likely that the court will send the case back to a lower court to sort out outstanding legal issues.
If so, it would be a huge victory for Trump, as it would most likely mean that any trial would not get underway before the election.
And if Trump wins the election, as a sitting president, he can drop both the indictment on the attempt to overturn the 2020 election results and the indictment on the illegal possession of classified documents.
The ongoing lawsuit over the hush money of a porn star is not serious enough to directly threaten Trump’s presidential dreams. In Georgia, there is no timetable yet for the serious state trial.
If the Supreme Court’s decision turns out as the experts are now guessing, Trump’s path back to the White House will be easier.
But the voters have the final say after all.
