Two weeks ago, Judge Chutkan rejected Trump’s sweeping claims that he enjoyed “absolute immunity” from the election interference indictment because it was based on actions he took while in office.
Trump appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
He also asked Judge Chutkan to freeze the election interference case in its entirety until the appeal was resolved.
Meanwhile, the months are rolling by and March 2024 (the trial’s originally scheduled start) will be here before we know it. The primary elections will be in full swing, and if the trial’s start date is pushed out just a few months, that could have a very big impact on the primary elections. (Voters will not be reminded of the Jan. 6 coup plotters and the role that Trump played in fomenting violence).
So Special Counsel Jack Smith is working tirelessly to get the March 2024 trial to start on time.
Adam Liptak and Alan Feuer writes for the New York Times:
Jack Smith, the special counsel prosecuting former President Donald J. Trump on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election, asked the Supreme Court on Monday to rule on Mr. Trump’s argument that he is immune from prosecution. The justices quickly agreed to fast-track the first phase of the case.
Mr. Smith’s request was unusual in two ways: He asked the justices to rule before an appeals court acted, and he urged them to move with exceptional speed.
“This case presents a fundamental question at the heart of our democracy: whether a former president is absolutely immune from federal prosecution for crimes committed while in office or is constitutionally protected from federal prosecution when he has been impeached but not convicted before the criminal proceedings begin,” Mr. Smith wrote.
