The Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in a case with significant implications for Trump – who argues that, even as a former executive, he’s protected from prosecution for official actions he took while in office.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked a hot hypothetical: If a president ordered the assassination of his rival, would that be protected by presidential immunity?
“That well could be an official act,” Trump attorney John Sauer responded. Read more live coverage of the high court arguments here.
Today’s arguments mark the first time the conservative-majority court – with three justices Trump nominated during his White House tenure – are weighing an appeal that stems from one of Trump’s four criminal indictments.
The justices are expected to rule on the issue before their term ends in June, The Hill’s Zach Schonfeld and Rebecca Bietsch report, and the timing of the decision could impact whether Trump’s other criminal cases go before jurors ahead of this year’s Election Day.
Meanwhile, in Manhattan, witness testimony resumed today in the first of Trump’s criminal cases to reach a jury.
Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker retook the stand in the case that centers on a hush money payment made by Trump’s ex-fixer, Michael Cohen, to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential cycle – in order to silence her allegations of an affair with Trump a decade prior.
Pecker’s testimony has helped lay out a timeline of his agreement to bury bad news about then-candidate Trump. Read more from The Hill’s Ella Lee about the hush money trial, which is expected to continue for several more weeks.
Over in Arizona, a grand jury on Wednesday charged Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows and other Trump allies for alleged efforts to prevent the lawful transfer of power after President Biden won the 2020 election.
Trump is not charged in the case, but listed as an unindicted co-conspirator, Lee and Schonfeld report. Prosecutors are accusing 18 defendants of scheming to raise false election fraud claims to pressure Arizona officials to overturn Biden’s narrow 2020 win in the Copper State.
The mounting legal woes come as Trump continues campaigning for another four years in the Oval Office. The former president has already secured the delegates he needs to be his party’s presumptive nominee, but a conviction in any of the cases he faces could roil his 2024 bid.
