Friday Briefing: Supreme Court hears Trump immunity case
Good morning. We’re covering a Supreme Court hearing on Donald Trump’s immunity claim and mass graves in Gaza. Plus South Africa, 30 years after the end of apartheid.
The Supreme Court heard Trump’s claim of immunityAfter a three-hour hearing in Washington, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority seemed poised to narrow the scope of the criminal case against Donald Trump on charges that he plotted to subvert the 2020 election. Such a ruling in the case, on whether the former president is immune from prosecution, would probably send it back to a lower court and could delay any trial until after the November election. Several Republican-appointed justices expressed worries about the long-term consequences of leaving future ex-presidents open to prosecution for their actions. Trump, who is accused of a sprawling effort to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election, contends that he is entitled to absolute immunity from the charges. That case is one of four criminal indictments he faces, only one of which has now gone to trial in New York. What’s next: A final ruling could come sometime in early summer. If Trump wins, there is every reason to think he would scuttle the prosecution. The New York trial: David Pecker, a former tabloid publisher, testified about how he helped bury scandalous stories about Trump before the 2016 election, including one involving the porn star Stormy Daniels.
More bodies were found in mass graves in GazaPalestinian authorities said yesterday that they have discovered more bodies in a mass grave on the grounds of a hospital in Gaza. They said they have now found 392 bodies, up from the 283 that they had previously identified. There are conflicting accounts between Israel and the Gazan authorities over how and when some of the bodies were buried. A Times analysis of social media videos and satellite imagery found that Palestinians had dug at least two of the three burial sites weeks before Israeli troops raided the complex. Hostages: President Biden and the leaders of 17 other nations called on Hamas to release all of the hostages seized in its Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.
Harvey Weinstein’s conviction overturnedNew York’s highest court overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 conviction on felony sex crime charges yesterday, a staggering reversal in the foundational case of the #MeToo era. The court ruled that Weinstein did not receive a fair trial: It concluded that the judge had made a crucial mistake by allowing prosecutors to call as witnesses a series of women who said Weinstein had assaulted them — but whose accusations were not part of the charges against him. |
