WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement in response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision granting legal immunity to former President Trump.

“Chief Justice Roberts is correct when he says ‘this case poses a question of lasting significance’ but when it came down to it, the Supreme Court failed to deliver for the nation and the rule of law. The conservative majority of the Court declared that a president has absolutely immunity from prosecution for official acts but not for unofficial acts. Yet, they could not declare that inciting an insurrection against the government and encouraging an attack on the U.S. Capitol were not official acts. Rather than settle this case clearly and coherently, they punted to run out the clock. Encouraging and inciting an insurrection are not ‘core constitutional’ duties.

“I agree with Justice Sotomayor’s dissent that this decision ‘makes a mockery of the principle, foundational to our Constitution and system of Government, that no man is above the law … Never in the history of our Republic has a President had reason to believe that he would be immune from criminal prosecution if he used the trappings of his office to violate the criminal law.’”