The special counsel argued that Trump has a low chance of winning a review by the high court.
Special counsel Jack Smith, who is prosecuting former President Donald Trump for alleged actions on Jan. 6, 2021, has urged the Supreme Court to deny the former president’s request to stay the case proceedings while he appeals a ruling that he’s not immune from prosecution.
Mr. Smith argues that President Trump has a low chance of winning a review by the high court based on the merits.
“Applicant seeks a stay to prevent proceedings in the district court from moving towards trial, which the district court had scheduled to begin on March 4, 2024, before applicant’s interlocutory appeal necessitated the postponement of that date,” reads the Feb. 14 response brief, which came a week before the deadline.
“Applicant cannot show, as he must to merit a stay, a fair prospect of success in this Court.”
Prosecutors argue that President Trump’s “charged crimes strike at the heart of our democracy” and that he tried to “thwart the peaceful transfer of power.”
Such a case is “the last place to recognize a novel form of absolute immunity,” they wrote.
Prosecutors also argued, as they did late last year when they requested that the Supreme Court intervene after President Trump brought the case to the appeals court, that it’s in the public interest for the trial to proceed quickly.
“Delay in the resolution of these charges threatens to frustrate the public interest in a speedy and fair verdict … 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.”
That the high court has already once declined to review President Trump’s use of presidential immunity reflects an “inclination not to review” that defense, prosecutors argued.
