The Supreme Court has scrambled Jack Smith's sweeping January 6th indictment against President Trump, making it unlikely Trump will face prosecution before the 2024 election - if ever.
None other than Joe Biden conceded that, after the court's historic immunity ruling on Monday, it is "highly, highly unlikely" that Trump will face trial before November.
Trump celebrated the ruling, writing, "BIG WIN FOR OUR CONSTITUTION AND DEMOCRACY. PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!”
In a majority opinion authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court held 6-3 that American presidents have presumptive immunity from prosecution for their official acts. That immunity is "absolute" for a president's core functions.
While the Supreme Court held that presidents do not have immunity for unofficial acts, the court did not plainly identify any conduct in Smith's indictment that falls in that category. The court directed the lower courts to decide which acts in Smith's sweeping indictment are still prosecutable.
The Supreme Court outright dismissed some of Smith's allegations, including charges that Trump corruptly pressured his Justice Department to look into election fraud.
"The indictment’s allegations that the requested investigations were 'sham[s]' or proposed for an improper purpose do not divest the President of exclusive authority over the investigative and prosecutorial functions of the Justice Department and its officials," Roberts wrote.
In another win for Trump, the court suggested that he is presumptively immune over his communications with Vice President Mike Pence about certifying the 2020 election.
The Supreme Court's ruling sparked furious backlash from Democrats and from the court's own liberal wing, which claimed the ruling places presidents "above the law."
Among those who blasted the ruling was Joe Biden, who accused the court of doing a disservice to American voters.
Trump has accused the embattled president - who is facing backlash from his own party following a poor debate performance - of relying on politicized prosecutions to secure re-election.
"The public has a right to know the answer about what happened on January 6 before they are asked to vote again this year,” Biden said at a brief press conference.
“Now, because of today’s decision, that is highly, highly unlikely. It’s a terrible disservice to the people of this nation."
The passions evoked by the court's ruling were clear in the court's sharply worded opinions.
The majority accused the three dissenting liberal justices of "fear mongering on the basis of extreme hypotheticals" and ignoring the more significant threat of presidents prosecuting one another in a dangerous cycle.
"The enfeebling of the Presidency and our Government that would result from such a cycle of factional strife is exactly what the Framers intended to void. Ignoring those risks, the dissents are instead content to leave the preservation of our system of separated powers up to the good faith of prosecutors."
The painstaking analysis that has now been handed off to the lower courts is likely to be exacerbated by a lengthy appeals process, making a pre-election trial all but impossible.
With Biden's odds of re-election dimming, Trump may never face trial at all.
