In a new filing with the U.S. Supreme Court arguing for the Justices to take up a dispute in a criminal case against Donald Trump, Special Counsel Jack Smith and his team rip into claims from the ex-president that he has wide-ranging legal protections by virtue of his time in office that should stop the proceedings. The criminal case providing the context for this dispute consists of Smith’s allegations against Trump over his attempts after the last presidential election to stay in power despite losing.
The federal prosecutors led by Smith handling these charges against Trump want the Supreme Court to step in before the resolution of appeals from Trump at a lower judicial level in order to resolve the dispute more quickly. As Trump brings his arguments of immunity, trial — currently scheduled for March of next year — is on hold. Though prosecutors saved the bulk of their arguments on the actual core of Trump’s immunity claims for future filings, Smith’s team gave a preview in a filing that asks the Supreme Court to take the dispute at this stage.
“More than a century ago, this Court, in construing a predecessor to one of the offenses alleged here (18 U.S.C. 241), recognized the necessity of congressional power to protect elections to federal office against “the influence of violence, of corruption, and of fraud,” finding the claim of a lack of power to prosecute such crimes “so startling as to arrest attention,”” prosecutors said, quoting earlier rulings. They added: “Those laws would lack efficacy if they could not be enforced against violators— including violators at the highest level of government. Respondent’s claim of immunity, if upheld, would thus prevent the evenhanded and impartial enforcement of critical congressional statutes.”
Trump’s team wants the dispute to proceed through the appeals court level — between the trial court and the Supreme Court — before the nation’s highest judicial body takes up the controversy. Read Smith’s new filing here.
