Legal experts break down why Supreme Court immunity request is a 'good sign' for Jack Smith

13 February 2024

Former President Donald Trump has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay a federal appeals court ruling that totally rejected his presidential immunity claims in special counsel Jack Smith's election interference case. And on Tuesday morning, February 13, Politico's Kyle Cheney reported that Chief Justice John Roberts had given Smith until Tuesday, February 20 to formally respond to Trump's request.

MSNBC was quick to offer legal analysis of this development, bringing on former Manhattan District Attorney Catherine Christian and former federal prosecutor Temidayo Aganga-Williams.

Christian explained, "What that says is actually good because that means that the Supreme Court is expediting whatever decision they're going to make. And I suspect that the special counsel already has their response ready to go. Remember, Monday is a holiday, Presidents Day. So, (the) Trump team met their deadline yesterday, and then, the next morning, the Supreme Court and the chief judge says: respond by next Tuesday, (which is) a good sign that whatever decision the Supreme Court makes, it will hopefully be expedited."

When Aganga-Williams was asked if Trump and his lawyers' actions were about "delay, delay, delay," the former federal prosecutor responded, "I think frankly, it is nakedly about delay. What the former president is hoping to do is have his cake and eat it too. He does not want the Court, really, to get to the merits. He wants more and more process, and that's what he's hoping for here."

Aganga-Williams continued, "Critically with the D.C. circuit, the three-judge panel (that) decided his case, what they did not forbid him to do was to have a stay while he went to full court — the D.C. circuit, the entire D.C. circuit. So, he's asking that of the Supreme Court: to grant him the stay…. But really, what he's asking for is an elongated process that is going to slow this and make this trial not happen before the election."

Watch the full video below or at this link.

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