Success after success. Donald Trump is living a moment of grace, and after crushing Joe Biden in the first televised debate, he has achieved another important victory: for the first time since the founding of the United States in the 18th century, the Supreme Court has declared that former presidents can be protected from criminal charges in official documents.
The first consequence of the decision, which will have repercussions not only on the fate of the businessman but for years to come, is that the trial of the attempt to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election will certainly be postponed until after Election Day. And that is exactly what Trump and his lawyers were aiming for. “A great victory for our Constitution and our democracy. Proud to be an American!” Donald immediately rejoiced, who was able to achieve this fundamental result thanks to the majority of conservative judges (six out of nine) he appointed to the highest American court.
But the reaction from the three liberal justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — who sharply criticized the ruling was harsh. “The Founding Fathers would not have supported this,” Sotomayor said in her dissent. “Our Constitution does not protect the president.” She warned that “this ruling makes the president a monarch above the law.”
Now the case is back in the hands of Washington District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who will have to decide whether to dismiss part of the charges brought by special prosecutor Jack Smith on the basis of the distinction in the articles between actions taken within the constitutional powers of the court as president, and therefore an official, and actions taken by him in his private capacity.
Not only that, if the former president wins the election scheduled for November 5, he could also force the Justice Department to drop the proceedings and dismiss the charges, just as he could grant himself a pardon. Buoyed by the victory — which comes at a crucial moment in the campaign, with the Republican convention and a verdict in the Stormy Daniels hush-money case due in 10 days — the businessman is calling for an “end to the witch hunt.” For all the other issues related to it. And on the democratic front, the atmosphere could not be more different. Despite her attempt to project calm with a cover for America's most famous magazine, Vogue, The Biden family is living its darkest hours amid accusations and difficult choices.
On the one hand, Jill and the rest of the clan will beg the president to resist the pressure and stay in office. On the other, the confrontation has begun against the campaign’s key advisers — Ron Klein, Anita Dunn and Bob Bauer — who, according to the family and some donors, are guilty of not adequately preparing the commander in chief by overloading him with numbers and statistics. The Supreme Court’s ruling on immunity has further exacerbated tensions in the Democratic camp. “The ruling does not change what happened on January 6: Donald Trump encouraged a mob to overturn the results of a free and fair election,” a memo to staffers read. “Trump ran for president despite being a convicted felon for the same reason he sat back and watched as a mob violently attacked Capitol Hill: he believes he is above the law and is willing to do anything to gain and maintain power,” the campaign charged. But rather than continue to smear the opponent, Biden and his team's priority right now is to stop the donor hemorrhage: That's why not only did his advisers spend the weekend on the phone, but Biden himself plans to call major funders in the next few hours to persuade them to stay focused on him.
Democrats are considering formally nominating Joe Biden in the second half of July to try to defuse rumors about his replacement in the race for the White House. Bloomberg reported this, citing several sources, who indicated that one of the hypotheses is July 21, when the Democratic National Convention Credentials Committee meets virtually to finalize the procedures for the convention that will open on August 19.
Expert judgment will slow down the process.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on Donald Trump’s partial immunity in the Capitol attack trial sends the case back to Judge Tanya Chutkan, who will have to decide whether to dismiss part of the charges based on the distinction made by the Nine Elders between actions taken in the president’s constitutional powers and actions taken in his private capacity. Experts say that will lead to another delay in the hearings, certainly beyond Election Day on November 5.
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