Nikki Haley calls for Trump’s legal woes to be ‘dealt’ with before November

‘I just think a president has to live according to the laws, too,’ the former UN ambassador said

Nikki Haley, the last Republican rival facing Donald Trump in the 2024 primaries, has called for all of his legal battles to be “dealt with” before the November election.

The former South Carolina governor is yet to win a state primary or caucus. On Thursday, days after losing big in Michigan, she appeared on NBC News’ Meet the Press and said: “I think all of the cases should be dealt with before November.”

“We need to know what’s going to happen before it, before the presidency happens, because after that, should he become president, I don’t think any of it’s going to get heard,” she added.

Her comments came a day after the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case over Mr Trump’s claim he has “immunity” against criminal charges related to his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The decision to hear the case means a ruling from the nation’s highest court might be made in the summer, pushing back the timeline for the federal election interference trial so that it could come perilously close to Election Day territory.

“I just think a president has to live according to the laws, too. You don’t get complete immunity,” Ms Haley said.

Presidents, Ms Haley added, should not get “free rein to do whatever they want to do.”

The former South Carolina governor is yet to win a state primary or caucus (Getty Images)

The Supreme Court’s decision on Wednesday came after District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s rejected Mr Trump’s motion to dismiss the case on “immunity” grounds in December.

In her ruling, she stated that his time in office “did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens”.

The judge added that serving as president “does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass”.

Mr Trump has frequently and baselessly blasted his ongoing legal battles as “election interference”.

On Thursday, he praised the Supreme Court’s decision to take up the case, claiming on Truth Social that “legal Scholars are extremely thankful for the Supreme Court’s Decision today to take up Presidential Immunity”.