Supreme Court gives Jack Smith a WEEK to oppose Trump’s stall tactic
- Trump filed a request for an emergency stay of the case Monday
- Move comes after decisive Appeals Court ruling against Trump
- Judge Tanya Chutkan had originally set a March 4 trial date for Trump
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The Supreme Court is telling Special Counsel Jack Smith to respond within a week to Donald Trump‘s request for an emergency stay that will keep his January 6 trial from moving forward while his lawyers argue he is immune from prosecution.
The timetable will keep the case moving forward, although the former president and his legal team, with an assist from judges, can still find ways to try to push the trial back as the political calendar advances.
Trump on Monday filed an emergency motion, asking the Supreme Court to put a hold on his election interference case that had been set to begin in March.
That timetable now appears shot, but Trump could still go on trial before the November elections, depending in part on what the high court decides to do.
Trump wants to keep the trial frozen while he seeks an en banc review by the entire U.S. Court of Appeals.
Smith has until February 20th to respond, for a total of eight days, although he could issue a filing sooner.
That compares to allowing four days for a response in a recent affirmative action case, the Hill reported.
Trump’s new legal filing, which had been expected, come has he continues to argue that he must be immune from prosecution for actions he took as president. He has been charged with plotting to overturn his 2020 loss and interfering with an official proceeding when Congress met to count the electoral votes for president. He has pleaded not guilty.
His lawyers filed an emergency appeal with the court on Monday, just four days after the justices heard Trump’s separate appeal to remain on the presidential ballot despite attempts to kick him off because of his efforts following his election loss in 2020.
In that case, even liberal justices asked skeptical questions about what might happen if a state were allow to deny a major party candidate’s position on the ballot.
Trump’s latest gambit is to let the appeals process play out, with time to ask for the entire Appeals Court circuit to hear the case. That was an outcome that a three-judge panel that ruled against Trump appeared eager to avoid by imposing its own deadline.
‘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,’ Trump’s lawyers wrote in their request for a stay.
Both cases put the high court at the center of the action in 2024.
The three judge panel issued a unanimous ruling Tuesday that Trump’s ‘alleged efforts to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election were, if proven, an unprecedented assault on the structure of our government.’
Not only did it rule against Trump, who called the decision ‘nation-destroying,’ but it set a clock ticking in a fashion that appeared designed to move things along.
Now, with Trump’s latest filing, the Supreme Court gets to decide if it wants to deal with the matter or let the lower court’s decision stand.
Trump’s filing meets a February 12 deadline, where a failure to act on his part would have gotten his DC trial moving again.
The filing keeps on hold what would be a landmark criminal trial of a former president while the nation’s highest court decides what to do. His trial is effectively paused while the Supreme Court makes its decision.
The Supreme Court’s decision on what to do, and how quickly it acts, could determine whether the Republican presidential primary frontrunner stands trial in the case before the November.
There is no timetable for the court to act, but special counsel Jack Smith´s team has strongly pushed for the trial to take place this year. Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly sought to delay the case. If Trump were to defeat President Joe Biden, he could potentially try to use his position as head of the executive branch to order a new attorney general to dismiss the federal cases he faces or even seek a pardon for himself.
The Supreme Court´s options include rejecting the emergency appeal, which would enable U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to restart the trial proceedings in Washington’s federal court.
The court also could extend the delay while it hears arguments on the immunity issue. In that event, the schedule the justices might set could determine how soon a trial might begin, if indeed they agree with lower court rulings that Trump is not immune from prosecution.
Five justices on the 6-3 conservative court could put in place such a stay, which would put the Trump trial on ice. Four justices would be enough to hear the case.
