What to know about the Supreme Court's ruling on Trump's immunity appeal
- The Supreme Court ruled that former President Donald Trump has some immunity from prosecution in his federal election interference case. The 6-3 decision, which is complex, further delays special counsel Jack Smith's prosecution.
- Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, rejected Trump's broad immunity claims and said Trump has immunity only for his "official" acts as president. The high court did not determine what constitutes an official act in this case, leaving that to the lower court.
- The court's liberal justices issued blistering dissents. In her dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said the ruling "breaks new and dangerous ground."
- President Joe Biden gave brief remarks from the White House this evening on the court's ruling, calling it a "dangerous precedent."
Trump’s Georgia election case gets more complications after immunity decision
The Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision is expected to add new twists to Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis’ already stalled racketeering case against Trump and his allies.
The Georgia case, which involves some of the same issues in special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of Trump on federal election interference charges, was officially paused last month until at least October, when an appeals court will hear arguments from Trump and some of his co-defendants challenging the presiding judge’s decision not to disqualify Willis as prosecutor.
Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has yet to set a trial date, and one of the motions pending before him is Trump’s bid to get the charges tossed out on presidential immunity grounds.
Trump slams Biden after White House remarks on immunity ruling
Trump said tonight that Biden's remarks from the White House were meant to distract from his performance on the campaign trail.
"Another attack by Crooked Joe Biden against his Political Opponent. This is a really bad and incompetent guy. Wanted to deflect from his horrible campaign performance!" Trump said on his social media site, Truth Social.
Special counsel isn't planning to ask the Supreme Court to quickly send Trump case back to lower court
Special counsel Jack Smith is not, as of now, planning to ask the Supreme Court to move more quickly than usual to issue its official judgment based on today’s ruling.
The final judgment is what triggers the process for the case to get back to the district court. As it stands, the Supreme Court’s mandate will not issue for at least 32 days.
It’s unclear why Smith’s office is not asking for this to happen faster. One interpretation is that either way, there won’t be a trial before the election so there is no longer any time pressure.
Trump moves to postpone sentencing and set aside hush money verdict
Trump's attorneys in his New York hush money case indicated in a letter to the presiding judge that they want him to postpone sentencing and set aside the trial verdict as a result of the Supreme Court's presidential immunity ruling.
The lawyers said they want to brief state Judge Juan Merchan on the relevance of the high court's immunity decision and an argument that decision confirmed that the Manhattan district attorney should not have been able to offer evidence at trial about Trump’s official acts.
Trump's attorneys are seeking to throw out his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and postpone next week’s sentencing, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.
News of the motion was first reported by The New York Times.
Trump's attorneys pointed to an element of the Supreme Court opinion that limits what evidence can be used at trial. The motion comes 10 days before Trump is scheduled to be sentenced in the New York trial.
The district attorney’s office declined to comment.
‘I dissent’: Biden attacks Supreme Court immunity ruling
Biden tonight called the Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity “a terrible disservice to the people of this nation.”
“This nation was founded on the principle that there are no kings in America. Each, each of us is equal before the law. No one, no one is above the law, not even the president of the United States. [With] today’s Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity, that fundamentally changed for all practical purposes,” Biden said.
Biden said the decision means there are now “virtually no limits on what the president can do,” a sentiment that echoed the dissents written by the liberal justices on the court.
“I dissent,” Biden said in concluding his brief remarks from the White House.
Biden says immunity ruling means there are 'virtually no limits' on presidential power
Biden said tonight that the Supreme Court's ruling means there are “virtually no limits” on presidential power.
He said voters deserved to have an answer through the courts before Election Day about what took place on Jan. 6, 2021.
"Now, because of today's decision, that is highly, highly unlikely. It's a terrible disservice to the people of this nation," he said.
Biden added that the high court's ruling means voters in November will be charged with deciding whether they want to elect Trump "now knowing he’ll be more emboldened to do whatever he pleases, whenever he wants to do it."
President Biden speaking about the decision
Biden is beginning to speak in remarks that are expected to be brief and in response to the decision.
Trump hailed the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling, while the White House said that “nobody is above the law” and the country needs leaders like Biden. NBC News’ Hallie Jackson reports.
Biden to deliver remarks tonight on Trump immunity ruling
The White House this evening said that Biden will deliver remarks at 7:45 p.m. about today's presidential immunity ruling.
Biden was initially scheduled to return to the White House from Camp David, Maryland, after 8 p.m.
House Republicans sue Merrick Garland over Biden audiotapes
Across the street from the Supreme Court, the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee today sued Attorney General Merrick Garland as part of its effort to obtain audiotapes from special counsel Robert Hur’s interview of Biden tied to his handling of classified documents.
"Garland violated, and continues to violate, his legal obligation by refusing to produce to the Committee the audio recordings of the Special Counsel’s interviews with President Biden and Mark Zwonitzer when those recordings are not covered by executive privilege, and, even if they were, executive privilege has been waived," House attorneys wrote.
The panel’s lawsuit seeks a court order requiring Garland to produce the audio recordings of Hur's interviews with Biden and Zwonitzer, the ghostwriter of Biden's 2017 memoir.
The panel had previously issued a subpoena to Garland, and the GOP-controlled House voted to hold him in contempt last month for refusing to release the special counsel's recordings. The Justice Department declined to bring contempt charges against Garland.
Biden in May asserted executive privilege over the recordings with Hur, which were released in transcripts in March.