Legal analysts — and the nation — continue to await the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on former President Donald Trump‘s claim to absolute presidential immunity “from criminal charges alleging that he schemed and knowingly fed lies to subvert the 2020 presidential election,” a program of action eventually leading to the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
If the SCOTUS Justices do not rule soon, the likelihood of another Trump trial happening before Election Day, November 5, are slim — and getting slimmer.
Note: It’s been six months since the three-judge federal panel heard oral arguments on Trump’s immunity claim, during which one of the judges famously addressed a hypothetical that had been previously floated: If a sitting president, the judge asked, ordered SEAL Team Six to assassinate a political rival would that president be shielded by presidential immunity? Trump lawyer John Sauer said yes.
In February that panel unanimously upheld the lower court ruling determining that Trump is not immune from criminal prosecution. The decision triggered a Trump request that the Supreme Court decide the presidential immunity issue, which in February it agreed to do, hearing oral arguments in April.
That came long after Special Counsel Jack Smith’s request in December that SCOTUS take the case and bypass the appeals court, since Smith believed — correctly — that SCOTUS would ultimately decide the issue.
The immunity Trump asserts — even to send Seal Team 6 to assassinate political opponents — was first brought before SCOTUS in Dec 2023
— Norm Eisen (#TryingTrump out now!) (@NormEisen) June 17, 2024
There’s no excuse to take 6 months to decide that absurd question
I joined @wolfblitzer @CNNSitRoom to discuss –TN pic.twitter.com/TCBOEdPg6I
Former White House Ethics Czar and Harvard-trained lawyer Norm Eisen, who believes the immunity decision has faced unwarranted delays, told CNN on Monday about the timing: “They still could jam a trial in or if they announce a test with fact-finding, the district court has time to do a mini trial to ascertain the facts and determine if immunity applies or not.” Eisen added, “It doesn’t on these allegations.”
Note: Eisen was co-counsel for the House Judiciary Committee during the first impeachment and trial of President Donald Trump in 2020, and is the author of Overcoming Trumpery: How to Restore Ethics, the Rule of Law, and Democracy.
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