The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments the week of April 22 in former President Trump's immunity case. The order from the court Wednesday keeps Trump's prosecution in the Jan. 6 case on hold.
The decision amounts to, at minimum, a short-term victory for Trump, and it means the trial originally set to begin in Washington, D.C., in early March could be delayed until summer or even after the November election in which Trump is the Republican front-runner.
Trump has argued the case amounts to election interference and that going to trial this year would burden his ability to run a political campaign. His attorneys said it would be a challenge to sift through the heavy volume of documents in this case.
Trump is fighting 91 criminal charges in four different jurisdictions, related to his effort to cling to power after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden and other alleged misdeeds that involve retention of classified documents and hush-money payments to an adult film actress.
Special counsel Jack Smith had urged the Supreme Court to swiftly reject Trump's claims, arguing the charged crimes "strike at the heart of our democracy."
"Delay in the resolution of these charges threatens to frustrate the public interest in a speedy and fair verdict — a compelling interest in every criminal case and one that has unique national importance here, as it involves federal criminal charges against a former President for alleged criminal efforts to overturn the results of the Presidential election, including through the use of official power," Smith and his team wrote in a recent filing to the justices.
At issue in the case is whether a president enjoys a lifetime shield from federal criminal charges for acts he took while in the White House. The Supreme Court has never before weighed in on such a claim.
Three judges on the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., unanimously sided with prosecutors earlier this month.
"We cannot accept that the office of the Presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter," the D.C. circuit judges wrote. Doing so, they said, "would collapse our system of separated powers by placing the President beyond the reach of all three branches."
If Trump regains the White House, he could order his Justice Department to drop the case related to the Jan. 6, 2021, siege on the Capitol, or even attempt to pardon himself.
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