The Supreme Court will hear on April 25 arguments about presidential immunity and whether former President Donald Trump will stand trial on charges that he conspired to overturn the 2020 election.
The decision of the highest body of the country will determine what course will take in an election year some of the issues in charge of the candidate of the republican image for the presidential elections on November 5. Former President Trump faces 91 criminal charges in 4 different cases. Among the charges is the withholding of other secret national defense documents, in violation of the Espionage Act.
“Donald Trump should also indicate that the President of the United States has immunity from criminal prosecution for crimes while in office,” Charles Bullock from the University of Georgia told VOA.
“However, I believe that at the core of this issue is how broadly Mr. Trump and his lawyers define official acts,” he explains.
“Currently, they give a very broad definition. Trump says the President should have full immunity while in office, but the three-judge panel that ruled against him asked, “What if a President pays an assassin to eliminate one of his opponents? ? Does this constitute an official act and can the President be immune in this case? I think we would all say “of course not”!.
Many Republicans continue to support Trump
The case to be heard this month by the Supreme Court, where 3 of its 9 members have been appointed by Mr Trump, involves federal charges that Mr Trump tried to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election by spreading false information and exercising pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject the legitimate election results when they were presented to Congress for certification.
Congressional certification of electoral delegate votes on Jan. 6, 2021, was disrupted by Mr. Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol. For that attack, Mr. Trump faces another charge, that of attempting to obstruct an official proceeding of Congress.
Former President Donald Trump argues that at the time he took these actions he was president and therefore cannot be prosecuted.
In the arguments filed in the Supreme Court, his lawyers wrote that “the President cannot exercise his duties and the institution of the Presidency cannot maintain its vital independence, in case the President faces criminal prosecution for official acts after the end of the mandate”.
A poll by Politico magazine and polling company Ipsos showed that 70 percent of voters, including nearly half of Republicans, reject Mr. Trump’s argument that presidents should be immune from prosecution for crimes committed while in office. .
Republican voter Jeff Williams of Valparaiso, Indiana, believes the allegations against Mr. Trump show he is being unfairly targeted by Democrats.
“I get the impression that these are all cases brought by Democratic-leaning prosecutors, in Democratic-leaning districts, in the hope that the jurors who lean Democratic will vote against Trump simply because they don’t like him. “, he told VOA.
“Do I think that a President should have full immunity before the law? No way. But have I seen any evidence to suggest that President Trump is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt? Absolutely not. This seems like a witch hunt to me,” he says.
Democratic voter Deborah Theobald in Woodstock, Georgia says “half the country is going to have to justify voting for a criminal this year.” She says that she “can’t believe that we are finding ourselves in such a situation”.
55 percent of Americans said in a poll by Reuters news agency and polling company Ipsos that they would not vote for Donald Trump if he were found guilty of a crime by a jury, while 58 percent said they would not vote for the former President if he was in prison.
“If a person committed a crime while in office, or committed a serious crime before taking office, then I think they should be tried like any other American,” said Rebecca Urrutia, a Connecticut mother who voted for Mr. Trump both in 2016 and in 2020.
“Anyone who says that the President should have immunity from trial for a crime does not protect the Constitution and our country. The president is a citizen and servant of our country, he is neither king nor emperor, and if he breaks the law, I cannot vote for him,” she says.
Impact on the expected presidential election
It is a turning point for the American justice system and a decisive political moment for Mr. Trump, says Robert Collins, professor of public policy and urban studies at Dillard University.
“Polls have shown that whether he is found guilty or not has a big impact on the presidential election. But, beyond the decision he will have on these cases, the longer they last, the more likely it is that Mr. Trump will avoid a decision declaring him guilty before election day,” says Mr. Collins.Independent voters play a critical role in what are known as swing states, states where Republican and Democratic candidates enjoy roughly the same level of support, and more than 1/3 of them said in a Politico and Ipsos poll that less likely to vote for Trump if he were convicted.
“But if there is no court decision on his conviction until before the election, which could affect the voters’ vote, then Republican voters can continue to support him (Donald Trump). And if he wins the election and is convicted after it, then he can say that as the President in office, he has the right to pardon himself. It’s a situation.
Dangerous,” says Mr. Collins.Melbourne, Florida voter Jillian Dani, who supported Mr Trump in 2016 and 2020, says the course of his legal affairs will have a big impact on her vote in November.”On the one hand, I would not vote for someone who has been convicted of committing a crime,” Ms. Dani told VOA. “But on the other hand, I’m afraid this is a witch hunt against someone the Democrats fear. I believe that Clinton and Biden were also criminals, but were not convicted. If even Trump is not punished, then why should he be treated differently”, she asks. /VOA
