Special Prosecutor Jack Smith has been put on the clock by the Supreme Court.
He now has one week to respond to the request by the Trump legal team regarding staying the decision of the lower court regarding Trump’s presidential immunity.
Talking Points…
- Trump asks the Supreme Court to intervene
- Smith on the clock
- Analysis
Donald Trump has not had much luck in having the courts rule in his favor for presidential immunity in the J6 case. In fact, after yet another loss, Trump has now filed a motion with the Supreme Court to stay the ruling issued by the lower court until the whole process plays out, which would slam the brakes on Smith’s case being able to proceed for months.
This trial was initially scheduled to be held on March 4, but Judge Chutkan put the entire case on hold once Trump appealed the immunity defense. This fell right into Trump’s hands regarding wanting to delay all of these federal cases until after the general election so they would not impact the election.
In the filing, Trump’s legal team argued:
“Allowing President Trump to pursue en banc review in the D.C. Circuit will provide an opportunity for similar thoughtful consideration in the lower court before this Court addresses the novel, complex, and momentous issues at stake in this appeal.”
On Monday, Trump’s legal team filed the emergency motion, and on Tuesday, the Supreme Court gave Jack Smith until February 20 to respond. Smith wants to push this case forward as quickly as possible, so seeing him respond far quicker than the deadline would not be surprising.
When the week deadline was given, some of Trump’s detractors already started to point to the longer deadline as being a favor to Trump, in essence accusing the court of doing Trump a favor with the delayed deadline.
For instance, The Hill reported that a recent case between an affirmative action group and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point was only given a four-day window to complete the response. The report also outlined a Michigan gerrymandering case that was given six days to respond.
There is a very good reason that Trump wants this decision delayed as long as possible. While the ruling has not been made, virtually every federal case he has can be put on hold. However, once the court issues its decision, the issue is settled.
From my perspective, I do not believe that Donald Trump is going to win this case. I say this mostly because of comments and previous decisions issued by the court. There is definitely an argument to be made that Trump was looking out for election integrity, but the way he went about it will be very tough to prove that he was acting as the president at the time and not a jilted candidate and private citizen.
Had Trump done this through the DOJ and challenged the election in the courts rather than holding a rally, it would have been the act of a president. Holding the rally was more of a campaign-style event. The court has been very clear that no president has absolute immunity for any act committed while in office if that act is deemed to have not been in the official role as president, and Trump surely knows this, hence the constant delays. I believe he knows he will lose this ruling, so he wants to put it off as long as possible to push these cases back until he is assured that a verdict will not be reached until after the general election has taken place.
