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Opinion of the Court
appearance in court in support of an application for a search warrant and the presentation of evidence at that hearing were protected by absolute immunity, id., at 492. And in Buckley, we categorically stated that "acts undertaken by a prosecutor in preparing for the initiation of judicial proceedings or for trial, and which occur in the course of his role as an advocate for the State, are entitled to the protections of absolute immunity." 509 U. S., at 273.
In both of those cases, however, we found the defense unavailable when the prosecutor was performing a different function. In Burns, the provision of legal advice to the police during their pretrial investigation of the facts was protected only by qualified, rather than absolute, immunity. 500 U. S., at 492-496. Similarly, in Buckley, the prosecutor was not acting as an advocate either when he held a press conference, 509 U. S., at 276-278, or when he allegedly fabricated evidence concerning an unsolved crime. With reference to the latter holding, we explained:
"There is a difference between the advocate's role in evaluating evidence and interviewing witnesses as he prepares for trial, on the one hand, and the detective's role in searching for the clues and corroboration that might give him probable cause to recommend that a suspect be arrested, on the other hand. When a prosecutor performs the investigative functions normally performed by a detective or police officer, it is 'neither appropriate nor justifiable that, for the same act, immunity should protect the one and not the other.' Hampton v. Chicago, 484 F. 2d 602, 608 (CA7 1973) (internal quotation marks omitted), cert. denied, 415 U. S. 917 (1974). Thus, if a prosecutor plans and executes a raid on a suspected weapons cache, he 'has no greater claim to complete immunity than activities of police officers allegedly acting under his direction.' 484 F. 2d, at 608-609." Id., at 273-274.
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