The Supreme Court was hit by a flood of new, damaging information on Sunday when a series of confidential memos from the Chief Justice were leaked to the public. The New York Times.

The court’s chief justice, John Roberts, made it clear to his colleagues in February: He wanted the court to consider a case involving Donald Trump’s right to presidential immunity – and he seemed inclined to protect the former president.

“I think it is likely that we will look at the separation of powers analysis differently,” Roberts wrote to his colleagues on the Supreme Court, according to a private memo obtained by the Just. He referred to the decision of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals to allow the case to proceed.

Roberts was unusually active in this and other cases, which ultimately benefited Trump, according to the Just-his handling of the cases surprised even some other Supreme Court justices, across ideological lines. As president, Trump appointed three of the members of the current conservative supermajority.

That was the case in March when the debate was over whether Colorado or any other state had the authority to disqualify an official from a federal election. Roberts persuaded the other justices to leave their opinion – that states cannot unilaterally disqualify a federal candidate from the election – unsigned to officially signal their unanimity, according to the Just.

The justices agreed until conservatives tried to introduce an additional proposal that would require anyone seeking to enforce the Constitution’s ban on seditious candidates to seek congressional approval. Four justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Amy Coney Barrett — found that idea went too far and wrote concurring opinions when they disagreed. Roberts herself wrote the majority opinion.

Roberts also took responsibility for the court’s ruling that the government had gone too far in charging the Capitol attackers on January 6.

He had initially assigned the case to Samuel Alito, but took it over a few days after the Just revealed that Alito’s wife Martha-Ann had hung an upside-down US flag – a symbol of the “Stop the Steal” movement and promoted by some of the January 6 rioters – outside his house, according to the Just. It was unclear whether the two incidents were related; none of the judges answered the Just’ Questions

But the move was unusual under court standards. Such cases usually only arise when a decision changes, experts told the Just.

That’s how the Trump ruling came about. Conservatives had voted to grant Trump and all presidents broad immunity for “official” acts while in office. But Roberts again claimed the case for himself, leading some on the court to wonder if he had taken on too much. He faced opposition from both liberal (Sotomayor) and conservative (Barrett) justices, but the ruling was passed in July, giving Trump a clear victory.

The clear loser? Judge Tanya Chutkan, who must decide how the ruling applies to special counsel Jack Smith’s ongoing case against Trump for attempting to overturn the 2020 election.