December 20, 2023
Just moments ago former President Trump asked the supreme court to stay out of his case – for now.
No—I’m not talking about that Colorado supreme court ruling that kicked him off the primary ballot…I’m talking about another major case of his.
The one being brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith asking the supreme court to weigh in immediately on whether or not former President Trump is immune from prosecution simply because he was president at the time of the alleged crimes. “Absolute immunity” is what Trump has been arguing in several cases including the election interference criminal case in Washington DC. The federal judge in that case – by the way – ruled that “absolute immunity” is not a thing – and trump cannot use that defense.
In this 44-page response to the Supreme Court today – Trump’s team is saying whoa whoa whoa – what’s the rush? I told you in this video Special Counsel Jack Smith skipped the appeals court and went straight to the Supreme Court asking them to decide whether Trump’s immunity defense will fly or not. In today’s response, Trump’s team says – the court’s “ordinary review procedures” are just fine – their appeal should go to the DC appeals court and then to the Supreme Court if necessary. They say the Special Counsel identifies “no compelling reason for the extraordinary hast he proposes.” By the way – going through the normal appeals process could take months or years.
Now – the Special Counsel has argued the haste is – he wants the March trial date for the election interference case to stand and if this appeal moves through the normal process there’s no way this immunity issue will be resolved in time and the trial will have to be pushed back. And the farther it gets pushed – the closer to the election it gets and whether the case will go to trial at all becomes a real question.
Now – you’d think the former President would want a decision from the highest court in the land on whether “absolute immunity” is even a viable defense for him as soon as possible. But even Trump’s team has said the strategy is to delay this case as long as possible.
The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether they will even take the Special Counsel’s expedited case. They have a few options here. The fact is – in the end they’re going to have to decide this issue one way of another – so right now they can either take the case – skip the appeals court and make a decision in a matter of weeks or months. Or they can decide not to take the case now and it’ll go through the normal appeals court process. The Washington DC appeals court already has deadlines for Trump’s team and the Special Counsel’s team to file their briefs next week but oral argument date has not yet been set.
Read the Trump team filing to the Supreme Court here.
