One of Donald Trump's favorite legal tactic is delay, delay, delay. He has used it successfully in every major trial thus far, avoiding true accountability in any meaningful way. But it appears he has met his match in Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Trump's lawyers have tried to slow the freight train movement of the DC Jan 6th case by filing motions, appeals, appeals on appeals and even more motions to clog the docket in this trial. This far, Judge Chutkan has made it clear that she intends to keep the March 4, 2024 trial date and Jack Smith's team has met every motion and appeal with expedited and thorough responses. This has infuriated Trump's team to no end.
Well, today the Special Counsel pulled what may be the most BALLER move thus far. He filed a request with the Supreme Court to ask them to rule on Trump's argument that he has absolute immunity from prosecution. In a shocking move, the justices quickly agreed to fast-track the first phase of the case.
This is a very unusual step. Usually, the prosecution would wait for the appeals process to run its course before going to the Supreme Court, but that could take months and would surely mean the justices could kick the can to the next term, which would begin in the fall of 2024, right during election season. This would put them in the position to tell a major party candidate that they are not immune and place Election Day right in the middle of Trump's trial, possibly. By asking for it to be reviewed and decided on during this term - a term which ends in June 2024 - this matter would be resolved and the trial could (hopefully) be complete before Election Day.
The request asked for two specific things: (1) He asked the justices to rule before an appeals court acted, and (2) He urged them to move with exceptional speed.
In the filing he wrote:
“This case presents 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."
The Supreme Court responded just hours later, granting his initial request: whether to put the case on a fast track, before the appeals court has a chance to rule. The Court gave Trump's team a short window to respond: their response is due by December 20th.
Ari Melber covered this on his show with guests Joyce Vance and Neal Katyal. They agreed on many things, one of them being that this is the "most consequential ruling of this case." Smith is truly rolling the dice - he is asking the Court to decide if one person is actually above the law.
Katyal said: "Jack Smith basically pulled into Uno reverse card on Donald Trump, saying, I'm tired of delay games, here's what I'm gonna do. There's a rule in the supreme court rules called -- which allows you to skip the Court of Appeals in extraordinarily important cases, and go straight to the Supreme Court. Now, sometimes in the Justice Department you're really reluctant to do this, because it looks like gamesmanship, you're trying to go to a more favorable forum. Here, the case was gonna go to the Washington DC U.S. Court of Appeals there, which is overwhelmingly Democratic appointees. Trump has been attacking that Court left and right. So there's no argument here that Jack Smith is trying to game anything by going to the Supreme Court. All he's trying to do is get the show on the road. Now, the Court has the ability and they just decided an hour ago to have expedited consideration over whether to hear this case with Donald Trump's briefs being due on December 20th. This will allow, if the Court decides to hear the case, the case to be heard and decided rather quickly, just as it was with Richard Nixon when the Special Counsel there basically skipped the Court of Appeals, went to the Supreme Court for a decision. Smart move by Smith, calling Trump's bluff."
Ari asked if this is a move of confidence.
Katyal was unequivocal in his answer, declaring that this was a move of "absolute confidence.
Reverse Uno card is right. Baller chess move. Hell, Jack Smith could beat Trump at Go Fish, let's be honest.
