Voter fraud trial will have to wait
Supreme Court sets date for Trump trial
March 7, 2024, 12:46 a.m
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Can Donald Trump be criminally prosecuted for his role in the storming of the US Capitol? The decision about his immunity lies with the Supreme Court. It has now set a date for the start of the negotiations. Trump
From the end of April, the US Supreme Court will consider the question of whether Donald Trump, as a former president, is immune from prosecution. According to the court’s now published calendar for April, the hearing on the question of criminal immunity, which Trump invokes as a former president, is scheduled for April 25th.
The Supreme Court agreed to review the case in late February and scheduled hearings for the week of April 22. This means that a trial against Trump for election manipulation, originally scheduled for March 4th, is on hold for the time being: the judges suspended the proceedings until the question of immunity has been clarified.
Trump had repeatedly demanded that this process – if at all – not begin until after the presidential election on November 5th. His lawyers are therefore relying on delaying tactics. Most commentators viewed the Supreme Court’s decision as a success of their strategy.
The trial, which was actually supposed to begin at the beginning of March, is about the ex-president’s attempts to subsequently overturn his election defeat against Joe Biden in 2020, in particular with the storming of the US Capitol that he initiated. The process would have begun in the middle of the Republican presidential primaries, in which Trump is now the only candidate. However, the trial cannot take place without prior clarification of the issue of immunity. A Supreme Court decision is not expected until June.
A federal appeals court had previously rejected Trump’s request for immunity from prosecution at the beginning of February, initially clearing the way for the trial. Trump has been indicted in a total of four criminal cases. If he is re-elected president in November, he could order that the federal judiciary stop prosecuting him after his inauguration in January 2025.