The US Supreme Court has sent Donald Trump’s claim he is immune from prosecution for his actions while president back to a lower court. The former president had been charged with conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiring against the right of Americans to vote and corruptly obstructing an official proceeding and conspiring to do so.

In a historic 6-3 ruling, the justices said for the first time that former presidents have absolute immunity from prosecution for their official acts, but no immunity for unofficial acts. The Supreme Court’s justices ordered lower courts to work out precisely ow to apply their decision to Trump’s case. The lower court must now decide whether he was acting officially or privately.

Trump posted on his social media: “Big win for our Constitution and Democracy. Proud to be an American.”

Three liberal justices all dissented from the majority opinion.

Trump has effectively delayed this federal trial, which accuses him of the subversion of democracy around 6 January. He was due to go on trial in March, which has been delayed because his lawyer said you can’t prosecute him because he was a president and as a president he was acting officially, he should enjoy immunity. They said he can have immunity for official acts, but he cannot for what they term unofficial acts. What that means is the indictment with which he is charged is filleted. So official acts like as a president calling up the Department of Justice and asking them to declare the 2020 election fraudulent – that’s an official act, that comes out of the indictment. They will be looking at what they can prosecute as unofficial acts, things like probably calling up Rudy Giuliani, his old attorney, and asking him to spread claims of election fraud. So now a lower  court will decide what can be prosecuted and what cannot. Then it goes back to the trial judge. But it won’t before November 2024.

So the accusation is this has all been about politics and loyalty undermining the rule of law in this country.

The Supreme Court’s decision adds further delays, and if Trump become president again in November he may be able to use his powers to dismiss the charges against him,

Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges, although he still faces three other indictments.