It has been noted that U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts of the United States Supreme Court has given prosecutors a week to respond to former President Donald Trump’s request to halt his federal criminal election-subversion trial. It comes as he attempts to convince the court to dismiss the case entirely based on presidential immunity.
Special Counsel Jack Smith has been given deadlines until next Tuesday at 5 p.m. to respond to the emergency application that Trump’s attorneys filed at the high court on Monday, according to a brief docket entry from the court on Tuesday morning, Politico noted.
Last Monday, a three-judge federal appeals court in Washington unanimously rejected President Trump’s expansive claim of immunity. Nonetheless, the judges opted against returning the case to a lower court for a trial until the Supreme Court considered Trump’s plea for emergency relief.
Smith has already implored the courts to resolve the immunity question as quickly as possible so that Trump’s trial in Washington, D.C., which was initially slated to begin on March 4, can begin later in the year.
Even before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals had addressed the immunity question, the special counsel petitioned the Supreme Court to consider it in December in an effort to expedite the resolution process. The request was denied by the justices, nevertheless.
“This Court’s immediate review of that question is the only way to achieve its timely and definitive resolution,” Smith wrote in the December filing. “The Nation has a compelling interest in a decision on [Trump’s] claim of immunity from these charges — and if they are to be tried, a resolution by conviction or acquittal, without undue delay.”
Smith is likely to disagree with Trump’s request to halt the trial court’s proceedings while he files additional petitions with the Supreme Court and the D.C. Circuit’s entire 11-judge panel for relief. He is hoping that those courts will decide that, absent being impeached and found guilty by Congress, former presidents are not prosecuted for actions that could be considered related to their office.
