WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Supreme Court will decide in coming weeks whether or not to expedite deciding if former President Donald Trump is immune from prosecution on charges of attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, as Special Counsel Jack Smith petitioned the court Monday.
A federal trial court recently ruled in Smith’s favor that Trump is not immune from prosecution, but Smith’s request seeks to prevent a drawn-out Trump appeal that could delay his trial, currently set to begin March 4, 2024.
“It is of paramount public importance that respondent’s claims of immunity be resolved as expeditiously as possible,” Smith wrote in his petition to the Supreme Court.
Trump recently appealed Judge Tanya Chutkan’s immunity ruling, a step that suspended the trial until the question is resolved. By plucking the appeal from the appeals court, the Supreme Court could definitively resolve the question of Trump’s immunity earlier and prevent the beginning of Trump’s trial from slipping.
A federal grand jury in D.C. indicted Trump on four counts on August 1. Trump insists that his actions within the indictment fall within the “outer perimeter” of his official duties as president, and therefore he enjoys absolute immunity. He also argued that having been impeached for his actions on January 6 and then acquitted by the U.S. Senate preclude him from prosecution on double jeopardy grounds.
A lower court disagreed, ruling with the government. The scheduled March 4 trial date is an expedited date in recognition of the national significance of determining an outcome.
It is very rare for a litigant to ask the Supreme Court to expedite a petition for review, and it is virtually unheard of for a party that prevailed in the lower court to petition the Supreme Court to get involved at all. But Smith wants the case resolved before the presidential election.
He wrote that he “recognizes that this is an extraordinary request. This is an extraordinary case.”
Late Monday the Supreme Court granted Smith’s request to expedite its consideration of his petition to take the case, with the court ordering Trump’s lawyers to file their response to his petition by 4 p.m. on Wednesday, December 20. If the court grants the petition, Trump’s case would be heard early in 2024. If the justices deny the petition, then Trump’s current appeal on the immunity argument will play out in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Even if Trump loses on the immunity question, however, he has several other defenses, which the courts will then consider.
Smith’s request will be the first time the Supreme Court will have the opportunity to weigh in on Trump’s historic prosecution.
In addition to Smith’s criminal charges — and other criminal charges, including in Fulton County, Georgia — a litany of cases in states across the country would remove Trump from the ballot via the Fourteenth Amendment’s “Insurrection Clause.”
Thus far, Trump has fared well in those cases. However, one or more of those are likely headed for the Supreme Court as well.
In emails recently made public, Georgia prosecutors made clear they seek prison time for Trump and his allies for seeking to overturn the 2020 election results in the state.
The case is United States v. Trump, No. 23-624 in the Supreme Court of the United States.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
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