The Supreme Court will determine whether former President Donald Trump can be prosecuted for attempting to overturn the 2020 election, with a 6-3 conservative majority court deciding to consider Mr. Trump's argument that he should be shielded from criminal charges. This marks the first instance of the court weighing in on such a case.

Previously, a US Court of Appeals panel rejected Trump's assertion of presidential immunity. In a landmark legal battle, Trump claimed immunity from all criminal charges for actions he deemed within his presidential duties.

However, the appeals court unanimously ruled against the 77-year-old, asserting that a president does not possess unchecked authority to commit crimes that undermine the foundational check on executive power: the acknowledgment and implementation of election results.

Trump appealed the case to the Supreme Court and requested a stay on the decision. On his Truth Social platform, Trump welcomed Wednesday's ruling, arguing that without immunity, presidents would be perpetually apprehensive and potentially paralyzed by the threat of unjust prosecution and retaliation after leaving office. He warned of the possibility of extortion and blackmail against a sitting president.

Last year, Trump faced charges of witness tampering and conspiracy to defraud the US in federal court in Washington DC due to his efforts to reverse his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden.

Jack Smith, who was appointed as special counsel in the investigation, brought the charges against Mr Trump, and pushed for the trial to be held this year.

The court could have let the appellate court judgement stand, which would have allowed the trial proceedings to resume.

Instead, a minimum of four of the nine justices voted to take up the case. That suggests that there is some debate within the court on whether Mr Trump has some immunity from prosecution.

The decision has the potential to seriously delay the trial, which was originally scheduled for March.

Arguments in the Supreme Court case are scheduled for the week of 22 April, and any trial will have to wait until after a decision is made.

Although a decision could come swiftly, the justices could rule that the former president is immune from prosecution, or issue a decision that further delays legal action.

Justice Department guidelines limit prosecutorial action in politically sensitive investigations from within 60 days of an election - meaning prosecutors face a deadline of early September.

And if Mr Trump wins in November, there is a growing possibility that the case never reaches trial. His Justice Department officials could drop or indefinitely suspend the special counsel investigation or he could take the unprecedented step of issuing a pardon for himself.

The Republican front-runner candidate for president is facing a host of other federal and state criminal charges.

The former president is facing a trial starting in late March on charges of falsifying business records over hush-money payment he made to a p0** star.

The Supreme Court is also hearing arguments in a separate case weighing whether Mr Trump can be disqualified from running for a second term under the 14th Amendment's "insurrection ban."

Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty in all the cases, frequently referring to them as political "witch hunts".

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