Special Counsel Jack Smith asked the Supreme Court on Monday to immediately decide if former president Donald Trump has absolute immunity from prosecution for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
"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," Smith wrote in the court filing, NBC News reports, adding that it was "of imperative public importance" that the high court decide on the question so that the former president's federal trial, currently slated for March, could progress as quickly as possible.
On Dec. 7, presiding U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan denied Trump's motion to dismiss his indictment in the federal election interference case, which cited presidential immunity and constitutional grounds. Trump appealed the decision and asked for the case to be paused in the interim. Smith is seeking an expedited decision from the Supreme Court to avoid the appeals process, asking the court to order Trump to respond by Dec. 18 and then act immediately on his request.
This circumstance does have legal precedence, Smith noted, referencing the 1974 U.S. v. Nixon case, in which the court ruled in an expedited manner that President Richard Nixon had to turn over tape recordings sought during the Watergate scandal investigation. Nixon resigned shortly after the ruling.
A Washington, D.C. grand jury indicted Trump on four charges, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and obstruction, in August. He's also facing 13 counts in a parallel but separate criminal case in Georgia, where the Atlanta-area district attorney accuses him of conspiring to subvert the election in the state. The former president has pleaded not guilty in both cases and maintains he committed no wrongdoing.
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