WASHINGTON — Lawyers for Donald Trump told a federal appeals court on Wednesday not to rush its investigation into whether the former president is immune from prosecution. They accuse federal prosecutors of trying to wrap up his 2020 election subversion case before next year's presidential election.
“The prosecution has one goal in this case: to unlawfully attempt to try, convict, and convict President Trump before the election in which he is likely to defeat President Biden,” defense attorneys wrote Wednesday. “This represents a blatant attempt to interfere in the 2024 presidential election and disenfranchise the tens of millions of voters who support President Trump's candidacy.”
The issue is of paramount importance to both sides given the possibility of a lengthy call to postpone a trial beyond the currently scheduled start date of March 4. Trump is accused of a plan to overturn the 2020 election after he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. has denied doing anything wrong.
Special counsel Jack Smith, whose team has brought two federal cases against Trump in Washington and Florida, has tried to keep both on track while Trump has tried to delay the proceedings — at one point even asking for the prosecution to be postponed in Washington until 2026. A delay until after the election would clearly benefit Trump, especially since, if elected president, he would have the power to try to order the Justice Department to dismiss federal cases .
In telling the Washington-based federal appeals court that there was no reason to expedite the immunity question, Trump's lawyers wrote that the “date of March 4, 2024 has no talismanic significance.
“Aside from the prosecutor's unlawful partisan motives, there is no compelling reason to uphold the date, especially at the expense of President Trump and the public's overriding interest in ensuring that these cases of extraordinary constitutional significance are appropriately be decided, with full and thoughtful consideration of all relevant authorities and arguments,” they wrote.
At issue is an appeal by the Trump team, filed last week, against a judge's rejection of arguments that he was protected from prosecution for actions he took as president. Smith tried to short-circuit that process by asking the Supreme Court on Monday to take up the issue during his current term, a request he acknowledged was “extraordinary” but which he said was essential to moving the case forward.
Smith's team simultaneously asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit to expedite consideration of Trump's appeal, writing: “The public has a strong interest in seeing this case go to trial in a timely manner. However, the trial cannot proceed until the suspect's cross-appeal has been resolved.'
The Trump team made clear it opposed that request, saying the case raises “new, complex and sensitive questions of great importance.”
“Whether a President of the United States may face criminal charges for his official actions as President goes to the heart of our system of separated powers and will be one of the most consequential questions ever decided by this Court,” they wrote. “The manifest public interest lies in the careful and deliberate consideration by the Court of these weighty issues with the utmost care and diligence.”
Additionally, the attorneys wrote, keeping the current schedule intact would require attorneys and support staff to work around the clock during the holidays, which would inevitably disrupt family and travel plans.
“It's as if the special counsel growled, his Grinch fingers drumming nervously, 'I've got to find a way to prevent Christmas. … But how?'” the lawyers wrote, referring to the fictional character created by children's book author Dr. Seuss.
The Supreme Court has indicated it would decide quickly whether to hear the case and ordered Trump's lawyers to respond by December 20. The court's brief order did not indicate what it would ultimately do.
A Supreme Court case typically takes several months, from the time the justices agree to hear the case to a final decision. Smith asks the court to act with unusual, but not unprecedented, speed.
Nearly fifty years ago, the justices acted within two months of being asked to force President Richard Nixon to turn over the Oval Office recordings of the Watergate scandal. The tapes were later used in the 1974 corruption prosecutions of Nixon's former aides.
It took the Supreme Court just a few days to effectively decide the 2000 presidential election for Republican George W. Bush over Democrat Al Gore.
If the justices decline to intervene on this point, Trump's appeal would proceed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Smith said even a quick appellate decision may not reach the Supreme Court in time for review and final word before the court's traditional summer break.
Trump faces four criminal charges in four different cities. He is accused in Florida of illegally keeping classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate and faces a state prosecution in Georgia accusing him of subverting that state's 2020 presidential election, and a case in New York in which he is accused of falsifying company records in Florida. in connection with a hush money payment to a porn actress.