The Special Counsel has already said SCOTUS should decide if Donald Trump can cite immunity defense to dismiss January 6 case.
Special Counsel Jack Smith’s previous calls for the Supreme Court to rule on whether Donald Trump can cite immunity to dismiss the federal election interference case against the former president may come back to bite the prosecutor, legal experts have suggested.
Smith, who charged Trump with four offenses over his alleged criminal attempts to overturn the 2020 election results, took a risk in December 2023 by asking the Supreme Court to immediately rule if the former president can claim absolute immunity as the charges against him in the January 6 case relate to his time in office.
Smith sought to bypass the usual steps of going through the lower courts and go straight to the Supreme Court to quickly resolve the issue in order to prevent Trump causing the trial to be delayed with appeals surrounding his immunity arguments.
The Supreme Court denied Smith’s request and said the immunity decision must be made by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. On Monday, the appeals court rejected Trump’s claim that he can cite presidential immunity to dismiss the charges against him—a decision the former president has already suggested he will appeal to the country’s highest court.
If the Supreme Court decides to take up the case and decide itself whether Trump can cite absolute immunity, it could further delay the start of the trial, which is already no longer beginning on March 4 as previously scheduled, by several months.
