Supreme Court grants Trump partial immunity for Capitol Hill events

A half victory for Donald Trump, perhaps even something more. But above all, a certainty: the criminal trial in which the former president is charged for his role in the assault on Capitol Hill on 6 January 2021 will go on for a long time, beyond the presidential elections in early November, and if Trump is elected to the White House, he will be able to block it for good.

The US Supreme Court decided yesterday to grant partial presidential immunity to Trump in the trial in which he is accused of the attack on the Washington Parliament by his supporters, following the tycoon's defeat by Joe Biden in the presidential elections at the end of 2022: the immunity granted is partial, because it is valid and absolute, only for official acts, i.e. actions carried out on the basis of the constitutional powers attributed to the president. For the Supreme Court judges, Trump cannot enjoy any immunity for actions performed as a citizen, candidate, leader of the Republican right, or in any case performed outside the exercise of presidential prerogatives.

The Supreme Court's decision will therefore allow the trial to continue, but further delays will be inevitable: official and private acts will have to be distinguished in the course of the trial.

The case returns to the hands of Judge Tanya Chutkan, who will have to decide whether part of the charges should be dismissed on the basis of the nine supreme judges' distinction between actions decided in the president's constitutional powers and actions taken in his private capacity. This will, according to experts, result in a further delay of the hearing, certainly beyond the election day on 5 November.

As proof of how divisive Trump is in the United States, the US Supreme Court's ruling on immunity was voted down by six justices, the conservative ones partly appointed by Trump himself, while the liberal justices spoke out against immunity, even if partial.