Special counsel Jack Smith on Monday asked the Supreme Court to quickly consider former president Donald Trump’s claims that he is immune from prosecution for alleged election obstruction in 2020 — an aggressive legal move designed to keep Trump’s trial on track for early next year.
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The filing by the prosecutor seeks to essentially leapfrog past an appeals court process that could take months to resolve, slowing down the Justice Department’s push for a March trial of Trump, who is currently the frontrunner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
“It is of imperative public importance that respondent’s claims of immunity be resolved by this Court and that respondent’s trial proceed as promptly as possible if his claim of immunity is rejected,” the filing from Smith’s team argues.
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Trump’s legal claims of immunity, the filing said, “are profoundly mistaken, as the district court held. But only this Court can definitively resolve them.”
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Therefore, Smith’s team argues, the Supreme Court should take up the issue now “to ensure that it can provide the expeditious resolution that this case warrants, just as it did in United States v. Nixon.”
Simultaneously, the special counsel filed a motion in the federal appeals court in Washington. D.C. — a court that is a step below the Supreme Court — asking for expedited review of the immunity decision in case the Supreme Court chooses not to take up the appeal immediately.
In that case, the prosecutors wrote, a swifter appeal process in D.C. would still get the case to the Supreme Court by next summer.
Smith’s proposed briefing schedule in D.C. would give Trump 10 days to appeal the ruling by U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan that Trump is not immune from prosecution. Smith would then allow the government a week to respond, and Trump three days to reply to that response.
Even if the court agrees to that schedule, the appeals court judges can take as long as they want to render a decision. When Trump claimed immunity from any civil lawsuit over his actions on and around Jan. 6, 2021, oral argument was held in December 2022; but the decision — with the appeals court ruling against him — just came out this month.
This is a developing story. It will be updated.
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The filing by the prosecutor seeks to essentially leapfrog past an appeals court process that could take months to resolve, slowing down the Justice Department’s push for a March trial of Trump, who is currently the frontrunner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
“It is of imperative public importance that respondent’s claims of immunity be resolved by this Court and that respondent’s trial proceed as promptly as possible if his claim of immunity is rejected,” the filing from Smith’s team argues.
Subscribe to The Trump Trials, our weekly email newsletter on Donald Trump's four criminal cases
Trump’s legal claims of immunity, the filing said, “are profoundly mistaken, as the district court held. But only this Court can definitively resolve them.”
ADVERTISING
Therefore, Smith’s team argues, the Supreme Court should take up the issue now “to ensure that it can provide the expeditious resolution that this case warrants, just as it did in United States v. Nixon.”
Simultaneously, the special counsel filed a motion in the federal appeals court in Washington. D.C. — a court that is a step below the Supreme Court — asking for expedited review of the immunity decision in case the Supreme Court chooses not to take up the appeal immediately.
In that case, the prosecutors wrote, a swifter appeal process in D.C. would still get the case to the Supreme Court by next summer.
Smith’s proposed briefing schedule in D.C. would give Trump 10 days to appeal the ruling by U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan that Trump is not immune from prosecution. Smith would then allow the government a week to respond, and Trump three days to reply to that response.
Even if the court agrees to that schedule, the appeals court judges can take as long as they want to render a decision. When Trump claimed immunity from any civil lawsuit over his actions on and around Jan. 6, 2021, oral argument was held in December 2022; but the decision — with the appeals court ruling against him — just came out this month.
This is a developing story. It will be updated.
