“This case represents a fundamental question at the core of our democracy: whether a former president enjoys absolute immunity from federal prosecution for crimes committed during his term,” Special Prosecutor Jack Smith wrote in his application to the nation’s highest judicial body.
Smith asked the Supreme Court, which includes a majority of conservatives (6 judges to 3), to make a decision quickly, allowing Trump’s historic trial sessions to begin, scheduled to begin in Washington on March 4.
The special prosecutor said, “It is of the utmost public importance for this court to rule on Trump's claims of immunity and to begin the trial of the defendant as quickly as possible if his claim of immunity is rejected.”
A Trump spokesman denounced Smith's move, and said in a statement that the goal of seeking to speed up the trial was to harm his client.
Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, said in a statement to Agence France-Presse that the request submitted by Smith is a rare procedure but is based on “convincing arguments.”
“Smith fundamentally believes that the future of the United States as a functioning democracy is at stake,” Tobias said.
Trump's lawyers have frequently sought to delay the trial until after the November 2024 election, including by asserting that the former president enjoys “absolute immunity” and cannot be prosecuted for actions he took while in the White House.
But Judge Tanya Chatkan, who will preside over the trial in this case, on December 1, rejected the defenses of Trump’s agents that he enjoyed immunity.
“Whatever immunities a sitting president may enjoy, the United States has only one chief executive at a time, and that position does not grant a lifetime pass to get out of prison free,” the judge said.
“The defendant's service as commander-in-chief for four years did not give him the right to evade the criminal accountability that governs his citizens,” she added.
Lawyers for Trump, the most likely candidate to win the Republican Party's presidential nomination in 2024, appealed the judge's ruling.
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