Smith is prosecuting Trump over allegations that the former president attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election and remain in office despite his loss to President Joe Biden. Trump’s attorneys have appealed a ruling by a district court that held that the former president is not protected by immunity. Smith’s request that the Court skip the step of going to the federal appeals court process before it takes up a case, seeks to keep on track his election subversion trial of Trump, which is slated to begin this spring. The Trump legal team’s appeal “suspends the trial of the charges against him, scheduled to begin on March 4, 2024,” Smith’s Dec. 11 court filing says. “If appellate review of the decision below were to proceed through the ordinary process in the court of appeals, the pace of review may not result in a final decision for many months; even if the decision arrives sooner, the timing of such a decision might prevent this Court from hearing and deciding the case this Term,” prosecutors told the Court in the petition. “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,” the legal filing from Smith’s team states. “It is of imperative public importance that respondent’s claims of immunity be resolved by this Court and that respondent’s trial proceed as promptly as possible if his claim of immunity is rejected,” prosecutors wrote, while telling the Court that this case warrants its “immediate review.” Also at issue is whether Trump is protected by double jeopardy. His defense team has argued that he cannot be prosecuted for actions he was already tried for through the impeachment process while in office. Trump’s lawyers note that the U.S. Constitution says presidents who were both impeached and removed from office could later be charged by “indictment, trial, judgment and punishment.” The language, according to the defense attorneys, “presupposes that a president who is not convicted may not be subject to criminal prosecution” and though Trump was impeached by the U.S. House, he was he was acquitted — not convicted — by the U.S. Senate. “The Constitution’s plain text, structural principles of separation of powers, our history and tradition, and principles of double jeopardy bar the executive branch from seeking to re-charge and re-try a president who has already been impeached and acquitted in a trial before the U.S. Senate,” Trump’s defense team has maintained.Special Counsel Jack Smith has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on whether former President Donald Trump has immunity from criminal prosecution for actions he undertook while in office.
