Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers urged the Supreme Court Wednesday to deny special counsel Jack Smith’s “partisan” effort to rush judgement on a key question in Trump’s 2020 election case.
Smith asked the Supreme Court on Dec. 11 to weigh in on Trump’s bid to dismiss his case based on presidential immunity before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals can hear the appeal. Trump’s lawyers told the justices Wednesday they should decline this request to “rush to decide the issues with reckless abandon.”
“This Court’s ordinary review procedures will allow the D.C. Circuit to address this appeal in the first instance, thus granting this Court the benefit of an appellate court’s prior consideration of these historic topics and performing the traditional winnowing function that this Court has long preferred,” Trump’s lawyers wrote Wednesday.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals already expedited review of Trump’s appeal, scheduling oral arguments for Jan. 9, 2024, they noted. Additionally, they said Smith “identifies no compelling reason for the extraordinary haste he proposes.” (RELATED: Trump’s Lawyers Accuse Jack Smith Of ‘Unlawfully’ Trying To Move 2020 Election Case Forward During Pause)
Trump responds to the Special Counsel’s requested expedited SCOTUS review.
Key quote:
“Novel, complex, sensitive, and historic issues-such as the existence of presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts- call for more careful deliberation, not less.” pic.twitter.com/K31pCaMmK0
— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) December 20, 2023
His attorneys argued that the “almost three-year wait” to bring the case and the current “demand for extraordinary expedition” create a “compelling inference of partisan motivation.”
“The current potential trial date of March 4, 2024, falls the day before Super Tuesday, one of the most critical dates of the Republican primary calendar,” they wrote. “Further, the Special Counsel’s insistence that this Court decide the immunity question ‘during its current Term,’ reflects the evident desire to schedule President Trump’s potential trial during the summer of 2024— at the height of the election season.”
“The Special Counsel thus confuses the public interest with a partisan interest of his superior, President Biden,” they continued, writing that this politicization of the schedule “departs from the best traditions of the U.S. Department of Justice.”
District Judge Tanya Chutkan declined Trump’s bid to dismiss his case based on presidential immunity on Dec. 1, writing that the presidency “does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass.”
“Novel, complex, sensitive, and historic issues—such as the existence of presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts—call for more careful deliberation, not less,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
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