By Jack Phillips
Former President Donald Trump’s attorney was critical of special counsel Jack Smith’s urgency to obtain a Supreme Court ruling on whether the former president had immunity.
Last week, the special counsel’s office filed a petition with the U.S. high court, asking the justices to issue a quick ruling on whether President Trump had immunity in connection to election-related charges that Mr. Smith filed against the president earlier this year. The justices agreed to take the case, asking the former president’s team to submit arguments by next week.
During a recent interview with Fox Business, Trump attorney Alina Habba said that “there is some sort of real sense of urgency” on the part of Mr. Smith. But, she contended, “The only urgency that I can see is that there is an election in November 2024, and they can’t beat him.”
Ms. Habba said that “everyone can see” what Mr. Smith’s team is doing with the case, describing it as “election interference” targeting her client. “They can’t beat him in the ballots, so they’re gonna have to either, you know, lie, cheat, steal or the newest, is lawfare, put him in jail, tie him up,” she continued, adding that “it’s un-American.”
President Trump, she added, is now “getting a lot of voters that he normally wouldn’t get because they’re seeing this, and he is the victim of, all of a sudden, they’ve made him a victim of complete and utter election interference and lawfare.”
The lawyer also offered speculation on why the Supreme Court took up the case so quickly, saying one “can read that both ways.”
“You can either interpret it as they want a quick response because it’s a non-issue and they’re not going to take it up, or they want a quick response because this needs to be shut down because there are so many other cases where they’re trying to do this,” Ms. Habba added. “You know, I don’t know what’s going on in their minds, but I do have faith in the Supreme Court. I think that those justices really take their office seriously. And we’ve seen that time and time again with them, especially recently.”
In petitioning the court, Mr. Smith wrote that “it is of imperative public importance that respondent’s claims of immunity be resolved by this Court and that respondent’s trial proceed as promptly as possible if his claim of immunity is rejected.” Previously, he said that the former president’s appeal was an attempt to delay his trial.
The former president faces a Washington trial date for March 4, or one day before the crucial Super Tuesday nominating contests. He also faces criminal charges in New York, Georgia, and Florida and a civil trial for writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit against him.
“It’s a scheduling nightmare,” Trump senior adviser Susie Wiles told reporters on Saturday regarding the court dates. “There’s no way to sugarcoat that.”
Mr. Wiles said the Trump 2024 campaign is frontloading his schedule ahead of the legal proceedings next year, which may disrupt his campaign.
But he likely will not attend any of the forthcoming GOP debates after skipping the previous four. His campaign has called on the Republican National Committee to suspend the debates, citing the former president’s significant poll leads.
“He’ll be here plenty,” Mr. Wiles told reporters in New Hampshire. “But I don’t think he’s going to get on the debate stage.”
Case on Hold
The election interference case in Washington will be put on hold while the former president further pursues his claims that he is immune from prosecution, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
The decision from U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan raises the likelihood that his trial on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election, currently scheduled for March 4, will be postponed as the appeal of a legally untested argument winds through the courts.
Shortly after the judge’s ruling, the federal appeals court in Washington granted prosecutors’ request to expedite consideration of the Trump appeal. The appeals court set deadlines for briefs to be filed between Dec. 23 and Jan. 2 but has not yet scheduled a date for arguments.
The issue is of paramount significance to both sides given that a court ruling in President Trump’s favor would presumably derail the case and because a protracted appeal could result in a significant postponement of the proceedings, including until potentially after next year’s election, that would benefit the ex-president as he seeks to reclaim the White House.
A Trump campaign spokesperson called the judge’s decision to pause the case “a big win for President Trump and our rule of law.” “The constitution should not be suspended in a baseless prosecution against the leading candidate for President,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
