WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, America First Legal (AFL) released an educational document highlighting the implications of the Supreme Court’s recent opinion in Trump v. United States on the case involving the criminal prosecution of President Trump in New York. This is the latest document in AFL’s series of fact sheets highlighting errors in Bragg’s New York prosecution.
In Trump v. United States, the Supreme Court described the three types of Presidential immunity:
- First, “the President is absolutely immune from criminal prosecution for conduct within his exclusive sphere of constitutional authority.” (Emphasis added).
- Second, the President has “at least a presumptive immunity from criminal prosecution for a President’s acts within the outer perimeter of his official responsibility. Such immunity is required to safeguard the independence and effective functioning of the Executive Branch and to enable the President to carry out his constitutional duties without undue caution. At a minimum, the President must be immune from prosecution for an official act unless the Government can show that applying a criminal prohibition to that act would pose no ‘dangers of intrusion on the authority and functions of the Executive Branch.’”
- Third, the President has no immunity for unofficial acts.
This decision has the potential to upend the criminal prosecution in New York. President Trump’s legal team is requesting the court review the conviction accordingly, arguing that “the Trump decision confirmed the defense position that [District Attorney of New York] should not have been permitted to offer evidence at trial of President Trump’s official acts … The verdicts in this case violate the presidential immunity doctrine and create grave risks of ‘an Executive Branch that cannibalizes itself.’”
Judge Merchan agreed to let President Trump and the prosecution argue this point and has accordingly delayed President Trump’s sentencing from July 11, 2024, to September 18, 2024—“if such is still necessary.”
This is the latest in a voluminous series of errors and grounds for reversal.
Read the one-pager here.
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Photo Credits: Adobe Stock Images / Bill Chizek.