On Friday, the US Supreme Court made the decision not to hear a case regarding former President Donald Trump’s immunity from prosecution for a speech he delivered before the riot on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021.
This ruling will result in a delay of Trump’s trial, potentially pushing it beyond next year’s election. Special Counsel Jack Smith had charged Trump in August with various conspiracy charges, arguing that his speech incited the Capitol riot.
Trump’s defense team claims that his speech was part of his official duties as president, granting him immunity from legal consequences. Despite the trial judge rejecting this argument and Trump’s lawyers appealing the decision, the Supreme Court denied Smith’s request for an expedited verdict.
As a result, the case will now proceed to a Washington DC appeals court in January, with the losing party likely to bring it before the Supreme Court. This process is expected to extend well beyond March 4 and into the election season, pausing Trump’s criminal trial until the issue of immunity is resolved. In addition to the January 6 case, Smith is also overseeing another prosecution against Trump for mishandling classified documents, which will be heard in a district court in Florida.
Trump has attempted to postpone this trial until after the 2024 election, while Smith has advocated for a swift trial.
In his plea to the highest court of the land, Smith acknowledged the extraordinary nature of his request, emphasizing the exceptional circumstances surrounding the case. Trump’s legal team accused the prosecutor of deliberately entangling the former president in a lengthy criminal trial during a crucial period of a presidential campaign, where Trump stood as the frontrunner and the sole serious contender against the current administration.
Trump himself has vehemently dismissed Smith’s case as a feeble attempt orchestrated by the Biden Crime Family and their weaponized Department of Justice to disrupt the 2024 Presidential Election.
With less than a year remaining until the 2024 election, Trump is widely considered as the presumptive Republican nominee and holds a lead over Biden in most polls. However, activists leaning towards the left in more than a dozen states have initiated legal actions in an effort to remove Trump from the ballots, citing a Constitutional clause from the Civil War era that prohibits “insurrectionists” from holding public office. Notably, the state of Colorado has already prohibited Trump from appearing on the ballots, a ruling that Trump’s legal team has vowed to challenge.
