Trump asks SCOTUS to delay election interference trial claiming immunity due to being a former president

Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to suspend a lower court’s ruling that denied him immunity from prosecution over allegations he planned to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump’s lawyers filed a 39-page emergency appeal on Monday asking SCOTUS to enforce a “stay” on the ruling of a three-judge panel in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The panel included Biden appointees Florence Pan and J. Michelle Childs, as well as Karen LeCraft Henderson, who rose to the bench under the Bush presidency in 1990.

The justices unanimously rejected Trump’s argument that he should be immune from the charges because the conduct alleged in the federal indictment occurred while he was in office.

“For purposes of this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all the defenses of any other criminal defendant,” the judges wrote in their ruling.

“But the executive branch immunity that may have protected him while he was president no longer protects him from this prosecution.”

The panel said the ruling would take effect on February 12 unless Trump asked the Supreme Court for emergency relief, or if the full appeals court agreed to hear the case after the deadline.

Last year, Trump was hit with four charges stemming from an alleged attempt to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. He has pleaded not guilty.

Monday’s filing called the DC Circuit panel’s decision “a stunning violation of precedent and historical norms.”

“Without immunity from criminal prosecution, the presidency as we know it will cease to exist,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.

Such an argument has not yet held up in federal courts.

Trump’s lawyers argued that the delay is necessary to give them time to seek further review of the ruling, either before the full DC Circuit or the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court’s decision could determine whether Trump faces trial before the November election.

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team has pushed for the trial to take place this year as Trump has repeatedly tried to delay it by any means necessary.

If Trump were to emerge victorious in the 2024 presidential election, he could order a new attorney general to dismiss the federal cases or seek a pardon for himself.

If the Supreme Court were to reject the emergency appeal, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan could restart the proceedings in Washington federal court, which were initially scheduled to begin in March.

But the justices could also extend the delay to hear arguments on the immunity issue.

Smith’s team has argued that the case be heard as quickly as possible.

“It is of absolute public interest that Defendant’s claim of immunity is resolved by this Court and that the trial of Defendant proceeds as expeditiously as possible if his claim of immunity is denied,” prosecutors wrote in December.

But Trump’s camp argued that the demands for an expedition were attempts to hamper his ability to campaign in the upcoming presidential election.

In Monday’s appeal, Trump’s lawyers indicated they would seek to extend the delay by asking the full federal appeals court in Washington to intervene.

Only then would they file a formal appeal with the Supreme Court. That could take any amount of time, ranging from weeks to months, before trial preparations could restart.

Three Supreme Court justices — Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — were appointed during Trump’s presidency and have repeatedly moved the court to the right on major decisions such as overturning abortion rights.

The Supreme Court ruled in a 1982 decision involving Richard Nixon that presidents are immune from civil lawsuits arising from actions within their official duties.

Trump’s lawyers have argued for months that those protections should also be extended to criminal charges.

In addition to the election subversion case, Trump faces other legal problems.

These include federal charges in Florida stemming from the unlawful keeping of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The charges hinge on his refusal to return them to the government despite being asked to do so several times.

Trump is also charged in Georgia State Court with plotting to undermine that state’s 2020 election results, and in New York in connection with hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels.