Supreme Court to hear high-stakes arguments on Trump’s absolute immunity in criminal case: Live updates

The US Supreme Court will hold a special session on Thursday to hear oral arguments over whether “presidential immunity” protects Donald Trump from prosecution in the case brought against him by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith regarding his attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election following his resounding defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.

The former president argues that a Richard Nixon-era ruling gives him broad immunity from prosecution related to his tenure in the White House while Mr Smith’s office points to another Nixon case contending that presidents do not have “absolute, unqualified” judicial immunity regarding official acts, which, were it granted, would effectively confer the powers of a king on America’s commander-in-chief.

Thursday’s arguments will impact whether Mr Trump faces the special counsel case in Washington DC and could influence whether the prosecution moves forward before November’s presidential election in which he is again running as the presumptive Republican nominee.

Mr Trump will not be in attendance to witness the hearing as he is required to be in New York for the latest instalment of his hush money trial, which resumes on Thursday after Wednesday’s recess, a restriction about which the defendant has complained loudly.

Finally, here’s Trump ranting at Mar-a-Lago after the conservative-majority Supreme Court helped him out in early March by overturning Colorado’s decision to keep him off its primary ballot papers citing an “insurrectionist” prohibition house within the US Constitution.

Donald Trump ranted about presidential immunity at his Mar-a-Lago estate following the US Supreme Court's decision to reverse a Colorado ruling disqualifying him from running for