CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said Thursday that former President Donald Trump’s legal team has a “very effective argument” against special counsel Jack Smith.
Smith requested the high court rule on whether Trump is entitled to immunity from criminal charges that he conspired to overturn the 2020 election without waiting for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to rule.
Trump’s lawyer D. John Sauer argued that an “erroneous denial of a claim of presidential immunity from criminal prosecution unquestionably warrants” court review but that the question should “be resolved in a cautious, deliberate manner … not at breakneck speed.”
Smith has asked the court to expedite the case but has not explained in any of his filings why the March 4 date for trial to begin is the only appropriate time.
“What do you think of of the Trump team’s argument here?” CNN’s Kate Bolduan asked.
“I think that’s a very effective argument in this particular case because the issue here is all about timing. Jack Smith won the immunity argument and Donald Trump lost. And the district court judge said, ‘You are not immune, Donald Trump.’ Jack Smith is saying, rather than the normal way this would go, which is this goes to the the intermediate court of appeals, and then maybe the Supreme Court, Jack Smith is saying – and it’s unusual but it happens – he says, ‘Let’s skip the middle layer and go right to the top.’ The problem for Jack Smith is you have to have a specific reason for it, and Jack Smith will not say it’s because of the election, because he doesn’t–”
“Why not?” Bolduan asked. (RELATED: Jack Smith Collected Images, Website Visits And Usage Data From Trump’s Cellphone, Filing Reveals)
“Because he – I believe – that he understands that would be inherently political. If he said ‘I want to try Donald Trump before the election’ –” Honig said before he and Bolduan had crosstalk.
“Well the fact that Jack Smith refuses to say it I think is telling in its own right,” Honig continued. “But Jack Smith won’t say it’s because the election. Instead if you look at his brief, its all this vague generalities about well ‘We need speed because speed is good and speedy resolution and delay is bad’ and Donald Trump’s team in that brief that came in last night, sees that weakness, and they go right at it. They say ‘He has not offered us any specific reason’ and they suggest strongly it’s obviously because of the election date, and I think they have the better argument there, whether that’s a cause to expedite or not, we will see what the Supreme Court does.”
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals had already expedited review of Trump’s appeal for Jan. 9 oral arguments but Smith wants to go straight to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is also set to hear a separate case which could impact Smith’s case. The high court will hear a challenge about the scope of an obstruction law that has been used to charge hundreds of Jan. 6. defendants and Trump himself.