Rosecutors get week to respond in Trump immunity case
The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave Jack Smith, the special counsel pros- ecuting former President Donald Trump, a week to respond to Trump’s emer- gency application asking the justices to halt an appeals court’s ruling that rejected his claim that he is abso- lutely immune from criminal charges.
In asking Smith to respond by next Tuesday at 4 p.m., the justices did not set a particularly speedy schedule. The court often asks for quicker responses to emergency applications on what critics call its shadow docket. But nothing pre- vents Smith from filing sooner, and he probably will.
The proceedings against Trump in his criminal trial on charges of trying to sub- vert the 2020 election will remain frozen in the meantime. Unless the justices move quickly, the trial could be pushed into the heart of the 2024 campaign, or even past the election.
In asking the Supreme Court to intervene Monday,
Trump’s lawyers urged the justices to move at a deliberate pace.
“President Trump’s claim that presidents have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for their official acts presents a novel, complex and momentous question that warrants careful consideration on appeal,” Trump’s application said.
His lawyers added that the court should take account the election campaign and what they said were Smith’s political motives in trying to move briskly.
“Conducting a monthslong criminal trial of President Trump at the height of election season,” the filing said, “will radically disrupt President Trump’s ability to campaign against President Biden — which appears to be the whole point of the special counsel’s persistent demands for expedition.”
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously rejected Trump’s argument that he may not be prosecuted for actions he took while in office.