Former US president and 2024 presidential hopeful, Donald Trump, speaks at a ‘Get Out the Vote’ rally in Conway, South Carolina, on February 10, 2024 [File: Julia Nikhinson/AFP]
Published February 29, 2024
Top court agrees to decide whether former President Donald Trump can be prosecuted on charges he interfered with the 2020 election.
The Supreme Court of the United States has agreed to hear former President Donald Trump’s claim of immunity from prosecution, further delaying his criminal trial on charges of conspiring to overturn his election loss in 2020.
The justices on Wednesday put on hold the criminal case being pursued by Special Counsel Jack Smith and will review a lower court’s rejection of Trump’s claim he cannot be prosecuted for actions aimed at reversing his loss because he was president at the time.
The court will hear arguments in late April, with a decision likely no later than the end of June.
That timetable is much faster than usual, but even if the justices deny Trump’s immunity bid, it is not clear whether a trial can be scheduled and concluded before this year’s presidential election.
Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the November 5 election.
The former president’s lawyers have sought to put off a trial until after the vote.
If Trump regains the presidency, he could seek to use his powers to force an end to the prosecution or potentially pardon himself for any federal crimes.
The Supreme Court, in an unsigned statement, said it will consider a single question: “Whether and if so, to what extent does a former President enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office.”
The question is an untested one in US jurisprudence because until Trump, a former US president had never been charged with a crime.
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SOURCE: www.aljazeera.com
RELATED: Supreme Court agrees to weigh Trump’s criminal immunity in historic case
Published February 29, 2024
The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to take up the issue of whether former President Trump can be criminally prosecuted for his efforts to overturn his 2020 reelection loss, setting up a historic case that tests the limits of presidential immunity.
The justices’ order keeps Trump’s Jan. 6 criminal trial proceedings on hold, for now, handing an initial blow to Special Counsel Jack Smith, but keeping alive a pathway for his prosecution to reach a jury before the 2024 presidential election.
Trump had urged the justices to slam the brakes on his trial but hold off on taking up his immunity claims on the merits until the former president first exhausts his appeal options in a lower court.
That process would’ve lasted weeks, if not months, which would’ve aided Trump in further running out the clock, thereby giving him a chance at returning to the White House and ending the prosecution before a jury could hear the case.
At Smith’s suggestion, the Supreme Court instead opted to hear the former president’s immunity claims now, though the justices refused Smith’s primary ask to simply stay out of the case and allow the trial to immediately move forward.
The high court’s order establishes an expedited schedule, setting up oral arguments during the week of April 22 and likely enabling the landmark decision to be handed down by the end of June or sooner.
If the conservative-majority court ultimately sides against Trump, as many legal observers expect, it would then allow Smith’s prosecution to move forward, providing Trump’s judge with a window to still schedule the trial before November’s election.
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SOURCE: www.thehill.com
RELATED: Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Trump Presidential Immunity Claim in Jack Smith January 6 Case – Trial May be Postponed Past November
Published February 29, 2024
The US Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear Trump’s presidential immunity claim in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s January 6 case in Washington, DC.
The high court will hear oral arguments on an expedited schedule the week of April 22 and decide by the end of the term in June or sooner.
Judge Tanya Chutkan postponed the March 4 trial date indefinitely as Trump’s immunity argument makes its way through the courts.
Jack Smith’s January 6 trial may be postponed past November.
“If the Supreme Court decides quickly to reject Trump’s bold immunity claim, it may permit a final trial on the 2020 election interference to occur later this summer or fall. But there’s no guarantee a final decision will actually come before November.” far-left The New Republic reported.
“Former appeals court Judge Michael Luttig predicted that it is now probably “unimaginable” that Trump will be tried in special counsel Jack Smith’s federal election interference trial before the 2024 election.” – TNR reported.
Earlier this month President Trump asked the US Supreme Court to pause the immunity ruling in Jack Smith’s January 6 case in DC.
A federal appeals court stacked with Biden judges previously denied Trump immunity in Jack Smith’s DC case.
The three-judge panel for the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Trump immunity claims: Florence Pan (Biden appointee), Michelle Childs (Biden appointee), and Karen Henderson (George W. Bush appointee).
“We have balanced former President Trump’s asserted interests in executive immunity against the vital public interests that favor allowing this prosecution to proceed,” the three-judge panel wrote.
