Trump campaign criticizes special counsel for Supreme Court move

Former President Trump’s campaign railed against special counsel Jack Smith’s request for the Supreme Court to rule on whether Trump has immunity from federal prosecution, accusing Smith of launching a “Hail Mary” to keep Trump from retaking the White House in 2024.

Smith asked the Supreme Court on Monday to immediately weigh in on whether Trump has immunity from prosecution in the federal case accusing the former president of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The move is part of an effort by the special counsel to keep the March trial on track.

“Crooked Joe Biden’s henchman, Deranged Jack Smith is so obsessed with interfering in the 2024 Presidential Election with the goal of preventing President Trump from retaking the Oval Office, as the President is poised to do, that Smith is willing to try for a Hail Mary by racing to the Supreme Court and attempting to bypass the appellate process,” a spokesperson for Trump’s campaign said in a statement Monday afternoon.

The spokesperson repeated Trump’s longtime assertion that the case against the former president is “completely politically motivated.”

Former President Donald Trump speaks during the New York Young Republican Club’s annual gala at Cipriani Wall Street, Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Trump has argued he is immune from the Department of Justice (DOJ) charges on the grounds that his actions leading up the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot were protected by presidential immunity.

The former president is charged with four felony counts over allegations he was involved in a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and stood at the center of a campaign to block the certification of votes on Jan. 6. 

Earlier this month, federal Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected Trump’s immunity argument in a ruling, stating the U.S. has only one president at a time and whatever immunities a president used to hold does not equal a “lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass.”

Trump appealed Chutkan’s ruling to the D.C. Court of Appeals last week. Smith is asking that the issue be taken up by the Supreme Court before the D.C. Circuit issues its ruling, pointing to the upcoming March 4 trial date.

Smith requested that the nation’s highest court expedite its decision on whether to hear the case, and if they do, he also asked the justices to accelerate their consideration of the case.

Trump’s campaign pushed back on Smith’s argument Monday, claiming it only stands to “injure” Trump and his supporters.

“There is absolutely no reason to rush this sham to trial except to injure President Trump and tens of millions of his supporters,” the campaign spokesperson said. “President Trump will continue to fight for Justice and oppose these authoritarian tactics.”

The former president has requested the trial court pause from moving forward until the appeal is resolved. Prosecutors have pushed back against that move as another tactic aimed at upending the case and pushing it to after the 2024 election.

The trial in question is the first scheduled among the four criminal cases against Trump. He also faces charges in Florida over alleged mishandling of classified documents, in New York over alleged hush money payments and in Georgia, where he is accused of participating in an illegal scheme to overturn the 2020 election results in the state.