immunity

In U.S. law, immunity refers to a protection from legal prosecution or civil liability. Presidential immunity refers to the extent to which a sitting or former president is shielded from criminal prosecution. In Trump v. United States (2024), the Supreme Court held that former presidents have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for acts taken within their “core constitutional powers,” and presumptive immunity for other official acts, while private acts receive no immunity. The decision significantly narrowed the scope of the federal election interference prosecution against Donald Trump. Transactional immunity, by contrast, is a grant made to a witness in exchange for testimony, protecting them from prosecution for offenses they describe.