Former President Trump has had a number of legal victories in recent weeks, putting a pause on a majority of cases and delaying others that could have complicated his campaigning during the general election season. 

The Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. United States last month that a former president has substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts in office but not for unofficial acts. The high court left it to the lower court to determine exactly where the line between official and unofficial is.

“The President therefore may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled, at a minimum, to a presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts,” the majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts states. “That immunity applies equally to all occupants of the Oval Office, regardless of politics, policy, or party.”

The question of presidential immunity stemmed from Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 case against Trump. Trump pleaded not guilty to those charges. That trial was put on hold in a lower court pending the Supreme Court’s ruling, which wiped out any charges related to official presidential acts.

That case has been returned to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Smith requested a delay to amend and prepare his argument in the case, following the Supreme Court ruling. Judge Tanya Chutkan granted Smith’s request. A joint status report is now due Aug. 30 and a status conference is now set for Sept. 5. 

TRUMP IMMUNITY CASE: SUPREME COURT RULES EX-PRESIDENTS HAVE SUBSTANTIAL PROTECTION FROM PROSECUTION

The Supreme Court’s ruling then prompted Trump’s lawyers to request that the former president’s sentencing be delayed in New York v. Trump. He was found guilty on all counts of falsifying business records in the first degree after an unprecedented criminal trial stemming from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation. 

TRUMP TOUTS SUPREME COURT’S PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY RULING AS ‘BIG WIN FOR OUR CONSTITUTION AND FOR DEMOCRACY’

The sentencing was originally scheduled for July 11, before the Republican National Convention, where Trump was set to be formally nominated as the GOP presidential nominee. Judge Juan Merchan agreed to delay and said a hearing on the matter would take place Sept. 18. 

Donald Trump and Jack Smith  (Getty Images)

But days later, Trump’s lawyers asked Merchan to overturn the former president’s guilty verdict in New York v. Trump.

Trump attorneys cited the Supreme Court ruling, saying the court should “dismiss the indictment and vacate the jury’s verdict based on violations of the Presidential immunity doctrine and the Supremacy Clause.” In the formal motion, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche pointed to the Supreme Court’s immunity decision and argued certain evidence of “official acts” should not have been admitted during the trial.

TRUMP REQUESTS NY JUDGE OVERTURN GUILTY VERDICT, INDICTMENT AFTER SCOTUS IMMUNITY RULING

Specifically, Blanche argued that testimony from former White House officials and employees was inappropriately admitted during trial. 

Blanche argued Bragg “violated the Presidential immunity doctrine by using similar official-acts evidence in the grand jury proceedings that gave rise to the politically motivated charges in this case.” 

A ruling on the motion is pending. 

JUDGE DISMISSES TRUMP’S FLORIDA CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS CASE

Days later, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed Smith’s classified records case against Trump. 

Trump had faced charges related to alleged improper retention of classified records at Mar-a-Lago. He pleaded not guilty to all 37 felony counts from Smith’s probe, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements. 

But Cannon dismissed the case altogether, ruling Smith was unlawfully appointed and funded, citing the appointments clause in the Constitution. 

The U.S. Supreme Court, Nov. 15, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)

The appointments clause states, “Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States be appointed by the President subject to the advice and consent of the Senate, although Congress may vest the appointment of inferior officers in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.” 

Smith, however, was never confirmed by the Senate. He is appealing the ruling. 

TRUMP APPEALS $454M NY CIVIL FRAUD JUDGMENT

Meanwhile, in Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis had charged Trump with crimes related to alleged 2020 election interference. Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts. 

The judge in that case dismissed six of the charges against Trump, saying Willis failed to allege sufficient detail. 

The case also was thrown into limbo when it was revealed Willis reportedly had an “improper affair” with Nathan Wade, a prosecutor she hired to help bring the case against Trump. Wade later resigned his position.

Last month, the Georgia Court of Appeals paused the proceedings until it hears the case to disqualify Willis in October, yet another major setback for Willis. 

Jack Smith, Alvin Bragg and Fani Willis (Getty Images)

Last week, the Georgia Court of Appeals said it would hear Trump’s argument to have Willis disqualified on Dec. 5, a month after the 2024 presidential election. 

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court ruling could be applied by Trump attorneys in several civil cases he has been fighting. 

In the civil defamation case brought against him by columnist E. Jean Carroll, Trump was ordered to pay more than $83 million in damages after he denied allegations he raped her in the 1990s. 

Carroll alleged Trump raped her at the Bergdorf Goodman department store across from Trump Tower in Manhattan in 1996. 

The jury found Carroll was injured as a result of statements Trump made while in the White House in June 2019. 

Trump’s denial came while he was president during a press gaggle at the White House. Trump attorneys could say the denial came as part of an official presidential act. 

His denial resulted in Carroll slapping Trump with a defamation suit, claiming his response caused harm to her reputation. 

Trump is also appealing the civil fraud ruling that demanded he pay more than $450 million after a lawsuit brought against him by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Trump’s legal team this week filed paperwork with a mid-level appeals court, calling the ruling “unconstitutional.”

President Biden said he plans to campaign for Democrat presidential candidate Vice President Harris in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state in the November election.

Biden spoke with CBS’s Robert Costa on “Sunday Morning,” making it the first interview since he announced in late July that he was bowing out of the presidential race against former President Trump.

During the interview, Costa asked the president if the public would see him out on the campaign trail for Harris.

“Yes, you will,” Biden said, adding that he talks to Harris all the time.

PRESIDENT BIDEN ADMITS PRESSURE FROM DEMOCRATS CONTRIBUTED TO DECISION TO DROP OUT

Biden then spoke about her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, calling him a “great guy” who, had they grown up in the same neighborhood, would have been his friend.

“He’s my kind of guy. Yeah, he’s real. He’s smart,” Biden said. “I’ve known him for several decades.”

Costa asked what the president would say to those who have expressed skepticism about his health, the rest of his term and being out on the campaign trail for Harris.

“All I can say is watch,” Biden said. “That’s all. Look, I had a really, really bad day in that debate because I was sick. But I have no serious problem.”

PELOSI ADMITS BIDEN CAMPAIGN WASN’T ON ‘PATH TO VICTORY,’ DENIES SHE PRESSED HIM TO LEAVE RACE

President Biden (Jacquelyn Martin/AP/Bloomberg via Getty Images/File)

The 81-year-old incumbent’s halting delivery and stumbling answers during the CNN-hosted presidential debate in Atlanta on June 27 sparked widespread panic among Democrats and spurred calls from pundits, editorial writers and some party donors for Biden to step aside in favor of a younger, more able standard-bearer.

Biden told Costa he has been in contact with his “friend,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, about winning the president’s original home state.

“He and I are putting together a campaign tour in Pennsylvania,” Biden said. “I’m going to be campaigning in other states as well. I’m going to do whatever Kamala thinks I can do to help most.”

Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.

As soon as I heard Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance smearing the military service of his opponent, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, all I could think was: Seriously? Are we really doing this again?

Are we really going to allow Republicans — who are freaking out now that their presumed glide path back to the White House has become a very bumpy road — to slime Walz the way they slimed Vietnam veteran John Kerry 20 years ago?

“When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, do you know what he did?” Vance said last week in Michigan. “He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him — a fact that he’s been criticized for aggressively by a lot of the people that he served with.”

Numerous journalists have called out this lie. They have also reported that the “people he served with” are Republicans rooting for former President Trump.

Walz served 24 years in the Army National Guard before being honorably discharged. During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, he was stationed in Italy, providing support to American combat troops. In early 2005, months before his unit was ordered to Iraq, he decided to retire from the Guard to run for Congress. He became only the second Democrat in more than a century to capture a traditionally Republican seat and continued to support the military as a member of the House Armed Services and Veterans Affairs committees.

In 2018, when he was running for governor, Walz inaccurately claimed that he carried weapons “in war” in the course of making an argument against allowing civilians to possess assault weapons. Vance disingenuously accused Walz of “stolen valor,” a phrase typically used to describe lying about military service or honors.

Trump’s running mate should be ashamed of himself for attacking a fellow vet.

Like Walz, Vance enlisted right out of high school. He served four years in the Marine Corps and was deployed to Iraq for about six months in 2005 and 2006. He worked in public affairs and was never in combat, though that does not mean he was never in danger. No American in Iraq in those days, military or civilian, was totally safe.

To many Americans, the attempted sliming of Walz has a familiar ring.

“Republicans,” Hillary Clinton wrote on social media last week, “are re-running an old tactic and trying to smear a veteran who’s also a Democrat.”

“Swift-boating” worked once before. Why not try it again?

In 2004, then-Sen. Kerry, a bona fide war hero, ran against President George W. Bush. Like many privileged young men looking to avoid combat in Vietnam, Bush had served in the Texas Air National Guard.

Kerry had been a Navy lieutenant. He commanded a Swift boat on the Mekong Delta for four months in 1969, earning a Silver Star, a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts. Devastated by what he had witnessed, Kerry became a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War soon after he returned home.

“How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?” he famously asked the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April 1971, nearly two years before the United States pulled out of Vietnam.

His activism earned him the lasting enmity of those who supported the misbegotten war. He was accused of endangering soldiers who were still fighting.

Years later, when Kerry accepted his party’s nomination at the Democratic convention in Boston, he crisply saluted and said, “I’m John Kerry, and I’m reporting for duty.” This was threatening to Republicans, who settled on a then-novel strategy: They would turn Kerry’s greatest strength into his greatest weakness.

Hence the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and eventually the term “swiftboating.”

The “truth” they promulgated was that Kerry was a fraud who lied about his service. It was such an outlandish and untrue accusation that Kerry tried to ignore it. By the time his campaign realized it was hurting him, the lie had already been lodged in the public imagination.

It should come as no surprise that Republican political operative Chris LaCivita, one of the architects of the disingenuous campaign against Kerry, is now one of two co-managers of Trump’s campaign. His fingerprints are all over Vance’s outlandish claims about Walz.

The great irony is that Trump ducked service in Vietnam partly by claiming bone spurs in his heels.

That didn’t prevent Trump from savaging Republican Sen. John McCain, a Navy pilot who spent nearly six years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and bore the scars of his torture there his entire life.

“I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said during his first presidential campaign.

As president, the Atlantic reported, he repeatedly disparaged service members who died in war — calling them “losers” and “suckers” — and requested that wounded veterans, especially amputees, not be allowed in military parades.

“Nobody wants to see that,” he told staff during a 2018 planning meeting.

Every time Vance attacks Walz’s military service, Democrats should remind voters that it’s in shameless service of a man who utterly disdains Americans who risk their lives to serve their country.

@robinkabcarian