Donald Trump on Monday asked the Supreme Court to block a lower-court ruling that he can be criminally prosecuted for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, insisting that presidents are shielded from prosecution and that a trial would \u201cradically disrupt\u201d his reelection bid.<\/p>\n
If a president can be criminally charged for actions taken while in office, Trump\u2019s lawyers warned, \u201csuch prosecutions will recur and become increasingly common, ushering in destructive cycles of recrimination.\u201d They added: \u201cWithout immunity from criminal prosecution, the Presidency as we know it will cease to exist.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was the second time in less than a week that the leading Republican presidential candidate turned to the nation\u2019s highest court to intervene in an unprecedented legal question that could shape his political future, in this case explicitly requesting that the Supreme Court keep his criminal trial on hold to allow his political campaign to move forward unimpeded. At oral argument in a separate case on Thursday, the justices seemed inclined to reverse a ruling from Colorado\u2019s top court that Trump should be barred from the ballot because of his conduct around the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s filing asks the justices to temporarily suspend \u2014 pending a formal appeal to the Supreme Court \u2014 the sweeping rejection by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit of Trump\u2019s claim that he is shielded from prosecution for actions he took while in office.<\/p>\n
It came on the same day that Trump attended a court hearing in Florida in a separate criminal case, in which he faces federal charges of mishandling classified documents and obstructing government efforts to retrieve them. In Georgia, a different hearing addressed allegations of misconduct against a state-level prosecutor who has charged Trump with obstructing the 2020 election results there.<\/p>\n
In all, Trump faces 91 charges from four different indictments. He has denied all wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
Forcing Trump into a months-long criminal trial, his lawyers said in their Monday filing to the Supreme Court, effectively sidelines him from campaigning, undermines the First Amendment rights of American voters \u201cwhether they support him or not, and threatens to tarnish the federal courts with the appearance of partisanship.\u201d<\/p>\n
The request gives the justices a potentially key role in determining whether and when Trump, who is closing in on the Republican nomination, will face a federal criminal trial in Washington. U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is presiding over the case, had paused pre-trial proceedings while the appeal was pending and postponed a scheduled March 4 trial date until the appeal is resolved.<\/p>\n
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., in his role overseeing cases that originate in the D.C. Circuit, is likely to ask for a quick response from federal prosecutors before the justices rule on Trump\u2019s request.<\/p>\n
The 57-page D.C. Circuit opinion delivered last week was a forceful and unanimous rebuke from an appeals court panel with two judges nominated by Biden, a Democrat, and one nominated by Republican George H. W. Bush. \u201cWe cannot accept former President Trump\u2019s claim that a president has unbounded authority to commit crimes that would neutralize the most fundamental check on executive power \u2014 the recognition and implementation of election results,\u201d the judges wrote.<\/p>\n
They said trial preparations could resume in the D.C. case unless Trump asked the Supreme Court to pause the proceedings by Feb. 12, giving the former president little choice but to go directly to the justices instead of seeking a review from the full appeals court.<\/p>\n
As they decide whether to grant Trump\u2019s request to keep the proceedings on hold, the justices are also likely to consider whether to schedule the immunity issue for argument before the Supreme Court\u2019s term ends in late June or early July. The justices could deny Trump\u2019s request and allow the D.C. Circuit\u2019s ruling that Trump can be prosecuted to stand, clearing the way for trial proceedings to resume immediately.<\/p>\n
The votes of five of nine justices are required to keep the D.C. Circuit ruling on hold and the trial proceedings paused. It takes four justices to accept a case for review.<\/p>\n
In his filing, Trump said the Supreme Court should not expedite review of his case and instead allow him to first seek rehearing by a full complement of D.C. Circuit judges.<\/p>\n
\u201cConducting a months-long criminal trial of President Trump at the height of election season will radically disrupt President Trump\u2019s ability to campaign against President Biden\u2014which appears to be the whole point of the Special Counsel\u2019s persistent demands for expedition,\u201d said the filing from his legal team, led by attorney D. John Sauer.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s attorneys also objected to the appeals court\u2019s order that he take the case to the Supreme Court in just four business days or risk having trial proceedings restart. They called the timeline an \u201cunprecedented and unacceptable departure from ordinary appellate procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesman for Special Counsel Jack Smith, who earlier had asked the Supreme Court to expedite the case as a matter of public importance, declined to comment.<\/p>\n
Some legal experts say there is good reason to think at least four justices will vote to take Trump\u2019s immunity appeal; he is the first former president to be charged with a crime, and the justices may want to have the final word on such a significant issue as whether he is shielded from prosecution.<\/p>\n
If the high court takes the case and does not expedite review, that would further delay Trump\u2019s D.C. trial \u2014 a key element in his legal strategy.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone knows that\u2019s been Trump\u2019s goal,\u201d Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, said during a panel discussion last week that focused on the former president\u2019s legal troubles. \u201cIf he can drag this on until after the election, and if he wins, he will quickly kill this case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even though the immunity case and questions about Trump\u2019s ballot eligibility are distinct, legal observers have suggested the justices may seek a compromise when it comes to resolving the matters involving the former president. After oral argument in the Colorado case, Richard Hasen, a UCLA law professor, said a \u201cgrand bargain\u201d appears to be emerging.<\/p>\n
Hasen characterized Trump\u2019s immunity claims as \u201cexceptionally weak\u201d and suggested the court could both restore Trump to the ballot and force him to face trial.<\/p>\n
\u201cTogether, these decisions let the voters decide if Trump really is disqualified from serving as president,\u201d Hasen wrote for Slate, adding that it would be a \u201cnice Kumbaya moment\u201d for the court.<\/p>\n
The D.C. Circuit upheld Chutkan\u2019s Dec. 1 ruling rejecting Trump\u2019s novel claim that former presidents are immune from prosecution, at least for actions related to their official duties, unless first impeached and convicted by Congress.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the purpose of this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant,\u201d the panel wrote. \u201cBut any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as president no longer protects him against this prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n
The judges pointed out that other former presidents believed themselves vulnerable to prosecution. Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon \u201cfor all offenses\u201d he \u201ccommitted or may have committed\u201d in office.<\/p>\n
During Trump\u2019s second impeachment proceedings in the House after the Jan. 6 attack, his lawyers acknowledged that he could be criminally charged even if acquitted by the Senate.<\/p>\n
Perry Stein contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Donald Trump on Monday asked the Supreme Court to block a lower-court ruling that he can be criminally prosecuted for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, insisting that presidents are shielded from prosecution and that a trial would \u201cradically disrupt\u201d his reelection bid. If a president can be criminally charged for actions taken […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":964,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}