Special prosecutor Jack Smith has asked the Supreme Court to allow progress in Donald Trump's trial in Washington over his attempts to change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden. Prosecutors are rejecting Trump's request to put the case on hold while judges decide whether the former president enjoys immunity from prosecution for alleged crimes he committed in the line of duty.
The prosecutor has filed a 40-page brief with the Supreme Court setting out his position against this stance. “The alleged crimes strike at the core of our democracy,” the document says. “A president's alleged criminal plot to overturn an election and thwart the peaceful transfer of power to his successor should be the last place where a novel form of absolute immunity from federal criminal law can be recognized,” he adds.
“The delay in resolving these allegations threatens to undermine the public interest in a speedy and fair verdict, a compelling interest in all criminal cases and one that in this case is of unique national significance because it involves a federal criminal complaint against a former criminal case President on alleged allegations. “Criminal attempts to overturn the results of the presidential election, including through the use of official power,” he argues.
Trump has already managed to delay the trial and has so far avoided being in the dock in the middle of the Republican Party primaries. Judge Tanya Chutkan had scheduled the trial for March 4, but Trump's resources forced her to postpone it indefinitely. Last week, the former president asked the Supreme Court to put the case on hold while he made some of the arguments in his appeal: “Without criminal immunity, the presidency as we know it will cease to exist.”
The former president wants the Supreme Court to rule that the investigation into the case, and therefore the trial, cannot continue while he continues to appeal to the courts to recognize alleged immunity. Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the case in which Trump is accused of four possible felonies over his maneuvers to change the election results and prevent the transfer of power, has already denied immunity. Trump appealed and the three judges on a panel of the appeals court unanimously rejected the appeal.
The former president can delay the process even further by appealing to the entire appeals court and ultimately the Supreme Court itself. Even if you lose all resources, if you manage to put the case on hold, you will have gained time. If Trump wins the election, he could order the charges dropped or even pardon himself.
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In his letter dated Wednesday, the prosecutor criticized this strategy: “His personal interest in postponing the trial must be balanced against two important, conflicting considerations: the government's interest in fully presenting its case without undue delay; and the public’s compelling interest in a timely resolution of the case,” says
Trump's lawyers said that pursuing a months-long criminal case against the former president and candidate in the middle of election season would “radically harm President Trump's ability to fight President Biden.” “The Order of the District of Columbia Circuit [que deniega su inmunidad y dice que se le someta a juicio] This threatens to cause immediate, irreparable harm to First Amendment interests. [que consagra la libertad de expresión] from President Trump and tens of millions of American voters who have the right to hear President Trump’s campaign message as they decide how to cast their ballot in November,” they added in their letter.
Jack Smith counters that it's the other way around: “The allegations here relate to the applicant's alleged efforts to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters,” he says. “The nation has a compelling interest in seeing the charges brought to justice,” he added.
The prosecutor doesn't want to waste time. He tells the court that if it is alternatively inclined to review Trump's immunity claim, it should take up the case now and expedite its processing.
The discussion of immunity relates to the Washington case, in which the former president is accused of trying to change the outcome of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden, in order to remain in power. However, the judges' doctrine can be extended to all four counts of 91 alleged crimes against him.
Trump's defense argued that he couldn't even be tried because he ordered a task force to assassinate his political rivals. Both the judge handling the case and the appeals court rejected the former president's immunity in very strong terms.
“Whatever immunities a sitting president may enjoy, the United States has only one head of government at a time, and that position does not entitle him to be released from prison for life,” Judge Chutkan said in the first instance.
“For purposes of this criminal case, former President Trump has become Citizen Trump, with all the defenses of any other criminal defense attorney. But any executive immunity that might have protected him during his term as president no longer protects him from this accusation,” said the decision by the three appeals court judges. “It would be a surprising paradox if the President, who has the ultimate constitutional duty to ensure the faithful observance of the laws, were the only position who could challenge them with impunity,” the justices said in their reasoning for the decision. “We cannot accept that the office of president forever places its former holders above the law,” he indicated in another of his sentences.
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