Jack Smith urges SCOTUS to reject Trump ‘novel and sweeping’ immunity claim

Source: source | April 8, 2024 | Miranda Nazzaro

Jack Smith urges Supreme Court to reject Trump’s ‘novel and sweeping’ immunity claim

Special counsel Jack Smith urged the Supreme Court on Monday to reject former President Trump’s claims of immunity and prevent the former president from further delaying his federal election subversion case trial in Washington, D.C.

In a Monday night filing to the nation’s high court, Smith argued Trump’s claim that he is immune from criminal prosecution for his actions on Jan. 6 contracts the “bedrock principle” of the United States that no person, including the president, is “above the law.”

“The former president’s constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed does not entail a general right to violate them,” Smith wrote.

Even if the court determined Trump is entitled to to a level of presidential immunity, Smith argued the former president’s use of official powers “was merely an additional means of achieving a private aim,” and should be able to be prosecuted based on private conduct.

“The Framers never endorsed criminal immunity for a former President, and all Presidents from the Founding to the modern era have known that after leaving office they faced potential criminal liability for official acts,” Smith wrote.

The former president and his legal team are arguing his actions leading up to and surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection are protected by presidential immunity.

Trump asked the Supreme Court justices in February to slam the breaks on his trial but hold off on taking up the immunity claims until he exhausts his appeal options in a lower court. This may have taken weeks, if not months, to reach a conclusion and at Smith’s suggestion, the high court agreed to take up the issue on an expedited schedule.

The justices will begin hearing oral arguments on April 25 and the landmark decision is likely to be handed down by the end of June or sooner.

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