Coming on the heels of his lie-filled, disastrous debate performance last week, President Biden attacked the Supreme Court on Monday evening for stymying his Justice Department’s attempt to imprison Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 election.
“Each of us is equal before the law. … No one is above the law, not even the president of the United States,” said Biden, who regularly brags about defying the Supreme Court. “But [with] today’s Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity, that fundamentally changed.”
The remarks came in response to the high court’s Monday ruling on whether presidents possess lifelong immunity from criminal prosecutions and if they can be charged for actions they took while in office that fall within the scope of their official duties as president. The case centered on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s lawfare against Trump ahead of the 2024 election. Smith indicted Trump last year related to the demonstrations at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
In a 6-3 decision, the court’s majority, as my colleague Brianna Lyman summarized, ruled “that presidents have ‘absolute immunity’ for ‘actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority’ and ‘at least presumptive immunity’ for all ‘official acts.'” The majority did not grant immunity for “unofficial acts” and remanded the case back to the lower courts to determine whether Trump’s actions, as alleged by Smith, constitute “official acts.”