The US special prosecutor pursuing Donald Trump on federal charges of trying to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election applied to the Supreme Court on Monday to launch an expedited review of the former president’s claim that he cannot be prosecuted on those charges.
The Supreme Court responded by stating it would consider Special Prosecutor Jack Smith’s request, obliging Trump’s lawyers to respond by December 20.
It is of imperative public importance that [Trump’s] claims of immunity be resolved by this court and that [Trump’s] trial proceed as promptly as possible if his claim of immunity is rejected.
Trump appealed the December 1 ruling by US District Judge Tanya Chutkan who denied his bid to dismiss the case. The judge found no legal support for Trump’s lawyers’ position that former presidents cannot face criminal charges for conduct related to their official duties.
Smith appealed to the Supreme Court as Trump could seek to pardon himself of any federal crimes if re-elected.
Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican Party’s nomination in 2024, claims that this case, as well as three other criminal prosecutions he faces, is politically motivated.
Prosecutors have accused Trump of attempting to obstruct Congress and defraud the US government with schemes to overturn his loss to Biden in 2020. The former president has pleaded not guilty to those charges, as well as charges stemming from three other ongoing criminal cases.
His appeal suspends the trial against him, which was scheduled to begin on March 4. Legal experts argued that Trump’s lawyers could use his immunity appeal to delay the trial, allowing him to run his presidential campaign.
Smith stated that Trump’s claims are “profoundly mistaken,” adding that only the Supreme Court “can definitively resolve them.”
Chutkan, rejecting Trump’s immunity claim earlier this month, wrote that attaining the office of US president “does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass.” The district judge also dismissed Trump’s argument that his prosecution should be barred on the basis of “double jeopardy,” the legal principle that people can’t be charged twice for the same offence.
Trump argued that his second impeachment amounted to criminal charges for double jeopardy purposes. He may soon request judges to consider the second issue in the election subversion case.
The ex-president announced Friday that he would appeal the ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, essentially upholding a gag order imposed by a trial judge restricting Trump’s statements about witnesses, prosecutors and court staff involved in the case.
Last year, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s request to block the release of White House records sought by a Democratic-led congressional commission investigating his supporters’ attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
