Supreme Court will take up Trump’s presidential immunity claim in April
The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear arguments on whether former President Donald Trump is immune from prosecution in his federal 2020 election interference case, a decision that could push the trial into next year.
In a one-page order, the court agreed to expedite its review of Trump’s immunity claim, setting oral arguments for the week of April 22.
“Legal Scholars are extremely thankful for the Supreme Court’s Decision today to take up Presidential Immunity,” Trump, 77, wrote on Truth Social. “Without Presidential Immunity, a President will not be able to properly function, or make decisions, in the best interest of the United States of America.”
“A President has to be free to determine what is right for our Country without undue pressure. If there is no Immunity, the Presidency, as we know it, will ‘no longer exist,’” he argued in a lengthy post.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the proceedings in special counsel Jack Smith’s case against Trump, had initially set a March 4 trial date.
However, the case has been on hold since December amid the former president’s effort to get a federal appeals court to rule that he is immune from prosecution for actions he took while in office.
The Supreme Court’s order also granted Trump’s emergency request to keep a pause on trial proceedings in place while the justices weigh Trump’s immunity claim.
A federal appeals panel unanimously rejected Trump’s argument earlier this month, just days after Chutkan scrapped the original March 4 trial date.
The panel ruled that the 2024 GOP front-runner does not have “unbounded authority to commit crimes that would neutralize the most fundamental check on executive power.”
Lawyers for the former president had argued that Trump could not be charged by Smith because his 2020 election machinations pertained to his official duties.
They also claimed that Trump’s impeachment by the House of Representatives in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol meant that the current case against him amounted to double jeopardy.
Chutkan had previously rejected the former president’s immunity argument in December, which triggered the appeal.
If the conservative-majority Supreme Court rules in Trump’s favor, the federal charges against him will be thrown out.
A federal grand jury indicted Trump on four felony counts last summer — conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights — over his alleged attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.
Smith charged that Trump made “knowingly false” claims of voter fraud in a desperate bid to stay in power.
Trump has three other pending criminal cases: A Manhattan case related to alleged hush money payments made to a porn star Stormy Daniels, the federal case alleging he mishandled classified documents after leaving the White House and the Georgia 2020 election interference case.
Trump’s legal team has separately made efforts to argue presidential immunity in defense of his 13-count indictment out of Fulton County, Ga.
The former president has denied all charges against him in all his criminal cases.