(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Special Counsel Jack Smith’s attempt to circumvent an appeals court currently weighing on whether former President Donald Trump enjoys immunity from criminal prosecution over alleged efforts to thwart the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
The Court’s Friday decision followed Smith’s attempt to sidestep the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which is currently reviewing Trump’s defense claims of immunity from prosecution for contesting the contentious election results due to his presidential role.
Instead, the Court allowed the appeal process to proceed, marking a partial victory for Trump. The former president sought to delay the case past the March 4 trial as it directly interfered with Super Tuesday, where multiple states select their preferred Republican nominee for president.
In contrast, Smith wanted the Court to expediently determine the merits of Trump’s defense, raising concern about timing. “The United States recognizes that this is an extraordinary request,” Smith desperately claimed in his plea to the Court. “This is an extraordinary case.”
Earlier in the appeal filing, Smith asserted that the prosecution of the former president raised a “a fundamental question at the heart of our democracy: whether a former president is absolutely immune from federal prosecution for crimes committed while in office or is constitutionally protected from federal prosecution when he has been impeached but not convicted before the criminal proceedings begin.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland, a Biden appointee, appointed Smith to investigate Trump for alleged conduct during the certification of the 2020 election and for purported mishandling of classified documents.
Following his appointment as special counsel, Smith charged Trump with four criminal counts, including obstruction of the election certification, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights under the Enforcement Act of 1870.
The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed to requests for a speedy appeals process and ordered both Smith and Trump to present their arguments on Jan. 9.
Trump vehemently denied the charges, describing them as a partisan effort to block his third presidential bid. The former president and GOP presidential front-runner celebrated the Court’s rejection of Smith’s appeals.
“Crooked Joe Biden and his henchmen waited three years to bring this sham case, and now they have tried and failed to rush this Witch Hunt through the courts,” Trump said on Truth Social. “Of course I am entitled to Presidential Immunity. I was President, it was my right and duty to investigate, and speak on, the rigged and stolen 2020 Presidential Election.”
