Lawyers for the former president argue Trump can’t be criminally charged for any action he took in office.
Key players in Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial
Key players in former President Donald Trump’s criminal charges in New York over hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
- Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith has charged Trump with conspiring to overturn his 2020 loss to Joe Biden.
- Trump is currently on trial in New York, charged with covering up hush money payments made to two porn stars Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
- Trump is the first former president to face a criminal trial.
Can presidents get away with murder?
Nine Supreme Court justices will hear Donald Trump’s arguments today that yes, maybe they can.
The former president’s lawyers say all presidents are immune from prosecution for anything they do in office – even murder, bribery, and corruption. The only way to hold one criminally accountable, Trump’s attorneys will argue today, is if a president is first impeached in the House of Representatives and then convicted by two-thirds of the Senate.
Stay with USA TODAY for live updates from Trump’s remarkable stand at the Supreme Court.
Sotomayor brings up assassination of political rival
Justice Sonia Sotomayor goes right to a key issue that came up during the appeals court review: does a president have immunity if he orders the assassination of a political rival?
Sauer, Trump’s lawyer, said that depends on the situation, but it could well be an official act for which a president is immune.
Sotomayor said Trump wants the court to find that presidents are entitled to use the trappings of their office for total personal gain without facing criminal liability.
–Maureen Groppe
More than two dozen demonstrators organized by the group Women’s March protested Trump’s immunity claim, and criticized the Supreme Court for even considering the matter.
“We’re here to demand that they wrap this up,” said Amanda Chavez Barnes, senior program director for Women’s March, protesting that the court’s decision to take up the case delayed Trump’s trial on Jan. 6-related charges.
Some of the protesters wore kangaroo masks in order to mock the “Kangaroo Court.” They rang cowbells, banged on small drums, and chanted slogans like “lock him up!”
Just a few Trump supporters counter-demonstrated. Matthew Atwood, 62, a local DJ and classical pianist, mounted a sign describing other people as “the real authoritarians.” Wearing a Revolutionary War-style uniform, Atwood described himself as “pro-American.”
He also sought to engage the anti-Trump faction in debate, asking members of three crowd at one point, “are you better off now than you were three years ago?”
“Yes we are,” replied a Trump opponent.
— David Jackson
Trump lawyer: Without immunity, `there can be no presidency as we know it.’
In his opening argument, Trump lawyer John Sauer told the justices presidents should be immune from prosecution because otherwise “there can be no presidency as we know it.”
No president has ever been prosecuted for their official acts, he said.
Without immunity, he continued, the threat of prosecution will “distort the president’s decision making.”
Every president will face defacto blackmail and distortion from his political rivals while he’s still in office, Sauer said.
–Maureen Groppe
Could Supreme Court presidential immunity arguments impact Trump’s New York case?
Early this month, New York trial Judge Juan Merchan rejected an argument from Trump to delay Trump’s New York criminal trial until after the Supreme Court rules on the scope of presidential immunity in Trump’s federal election interference case. Merchan said Trump raised the immunity defense in his New York case too late.
If Trump is found guilty in the New York criminal trial, he could challenge Merchan’s immunity ruling on appeal, and potentially point to a Supreme Court immunity ruling as a basis for re-trying the New York case.
– Aysha Bagchi
Trump held a campaign event en route to the courthouse in New York, stopping at a nearby construction site to speak with supportive union members.
Reporters asked the former president about the Supreme Court’s immunity hearing, but his comments were drowned out by the cheers of his audience.
— David Jackson
Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump last August on four charges, to which he pleaded not guilty.
Trump is charged with conspiring to try to steal the 2020 election and remain in power by spreading lies about election fraud that fueled the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump is also charged with obstructing Congress because the riot interrupted lawmakers counting Electoral College votes to certify that President Joe Biden won the election.
— Maureen Groppe
Outside the Supreme Court, protesters who traveled from Minnesota, Florida, and other states to register their support and concern about the historic Trump case. “Absolute Immunity = Absolute Tyranny,” reads the sign carried by Demitri Morgan, 38, who said he traveled from his home in Montana for the high court hearing.
Another hand-painted sign says “Loser.”
“Yo, fake news! What’s up with fake news?,” chanted Jim Whalen, 61, an ad salesman who said he came up from his home in West Palm Beach, Fla.– David Jackson
Trump immunity argument ‘ridiculous’: Schumer
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., called former President Donald Trump’s immunity argument “ridiculous” and said the Supreme Court should not have agreed to hear the case.
“Today, SCOTUS hears Trump’s ridiculous claim of total immunity. He’s obviously not immune,” Schumer https://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/1783486838692364780, formerly Twitter. “SCOTUS is only protecting Trump and slowing his trial. SCOTUS should not have taken this case or frozen the district court.”
–Bart Jansen
What is presidential immunity?
The Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that presidents are immune both while in office and after from civil damages for official acts, including those on the “outer perimeter of a president’s official responsibilities.”
In 1997, the court said presidents can be sued for their private acts.
The court has also said presidents have no broad immunity from complying with subpoenas in criminal cases brought by states or the federal government.
The Justice Department has long argued that presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted while in office.
But the court has never weighed in on whether former presidents are immune from criminal prosecution.
—Maureen Groppe
Donald Trump is trying to quash federal charges that he conspired to overturn the 2020 election after his bitter loss to President Joe Biden.
Without sweeping immunity, a president “will always be concerned, and even paralyzed, by the prospect of wrongful prosecution and retaliation after they leave office,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Sunday.
— Dan Morrison
The presumptive Republican nominee won’t be at the Supreme Court for today’s blockbuster arguments.
Trump is on trial in New York, charged with doctoring records to hide $130,000 in hush money paid to an adult film star. Trump also faces two other criminal indictments.
The judge in his New York trial told him he was required to be in court, which meant he was not able to attend his historic hearing.
— Dan Morrison
What should the justices make of the fact that Donald Trump is the first president – former or current – to face criminal charges?
Trump’s lawyers say it’s evidence that presidents can’t be prosecuted.
“The long history of not prosecuting Presidents for official acts, despite ample motive and opportunity to do so over the years, demonstrates that the newly discovered alleged power to do so does not exist,” they wrote in their main brief previewing their oral argument.
Special counsel Jack Smith counters that the fact that no previous president has been prosecuted underscores the unprecedented nature of Trump’s alleged crimes.
–Maureen Groppe
Recent rulings: The Supreme Court snubbed House Republicans who dodged metal detectors after Jan. 6
