The Department of Justice has one week to respond following former President Donald Trump's appeal to the United States Supreme Court.
Trump asked the court to stay his case one week after a lower court ruled he could not claim presidential immunity. Now, special counsel Jack Smith's team must respond by Feb. 20 at 5 p.m.
The United States Court of Appeals of D.C. found on Feb. 6 that Trump could be prosecuted for the allegation levied against him by the special committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021. Trump’s legal team argued that he could only be prosecuted if he had been impeached by the Senate.
The panel of three judges declared that “for the purpose of this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant.”
“But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as President no longer protects him against this prosecution,” the judges stated in their opinion.
The panel gave Trump until the end of Feb. 12 to respond and ask the nation’s highest court to issue an emergency stay of the lower court’s ruling. If the Supreme Court declines to take up the case, it will go to trial under District of Columbia Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan.
Smith urged the court in a December filing to weigh in on the immunity question and prevent "undue delay" as the country "has a compelling interest in a decision" regarding the Republican front-runner's claim to immunity from the charges his team has brought against Trump.
“If the trial is pushed into the summer or early fall, that could trigger concerns about the trial impacting the election, which could run afoul of DOJ policy,” noted ABC News.
Trump pleaded not guilty to election interference charges brought against him in August. He has denounced Smith, who has accused the former president of “conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to disenfranchise voters, and conspiring and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding.”
“The attack on our nation’s capital on January 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy. As described in the indictment, it was fueled by lies. Lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S. government, the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election,” Smith said in an Aug. 1 statement. “The Department of Justice has remained committed to ensuring accountability for those criminally responsible for what happened that day.”
“This was never supposed to happen in America. This is the persecution of the person that's leading by very substantial numbers in the Republican primary and leading Biden by a lot,” said Trump to reporters after his arraignment in Washington, D.C., per NPR. “So if you can't beat him, you persecute him or you prosecute him. We can't let this happen in America.”
Trump has already asked the Supreme Court to review a ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court, which barred his name from appearing on the ballot in December because of his actions related to the Capitol Riot.
Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung told Axios that “if immunity is not granted to a President, every future President who leaves office will face the prospect of being wrongfully indicted by the opposing party.”
“Even while the President is still in office, his political opponents will use the threat of future prosecution as a weapon, effectively blackmailing and extorting him to influence his most sensitive and important decisions,” he continued. “The Supreme Court should grant the requested stay and put an end to Deranged Jack Smith's repeated attempts to corruptly short-circuit the ordinary and correct functioning of our justice system.”
