Supreme court hands big win to Trump in immunity ruling | First Thing
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Good morning.
The US supreme court ruled on Monday that former presidents are entitled to some degree of immunity from criminal prosecution, handing a big victory to Donald Trump and likely gutting the 2020 election subversion case against him.
What does this mean for the criminal cases against Trump? Trump is accused of overseeing a sprawling effort to subvert the 2020 election by spreading false claims of election fraud, plotting to recruit fake slates of electors, pressuring US justice department officials to open sham investigations into election fraud, and pressuring his vice-president, Mike Pence, to obstruct Congress's certification of Biden's win. The US district judge Tanya Chutkan will now have to review the indictment line by line to determine whether Trump's alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election results were official acts.
What about Trump's other criminal cases? Trump's lawyers have already asked the New York judge who presided over his hush-money trial to set aside his conviction and delay his sentencing so the judge can weigh the high court's decision and how it could influence the case.
How did Trump react to the ruling? He called it a big win for our constitution and democracy".
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