Dec. 12, 2023 - Epoch Times
08:32
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| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| Just earlier today, Mr. | |
| Jack Smith leapfrogged the typical judicial process and he directly asked the US Supreme Court to get involved and to rule on whether or not President Trump can be prosecuted. | |
| Although, to explain the significance of what's actually happening here, I need to back up and give you a bit of the backstory. | |
| This right here, as you're likely well aware, is Mr. | |
| Jack Smith. | |
| He is the federal prosecutor who is currently pushing forward the case against President Trump over in Washington, D.C. That's the case that's charging President Trump with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election. | |
| And while the trial itself is set to start on March 4th, well, right now there are a lot of behind-the-scenes machinations playing themselves out on both sides, on both the prosecution and defense side. | |
| For their part, President Trump's legal team has been making the argument that, as President of the United States, Trump is actually immune from these types of lawsuits altogether. | |
| Their logic is that President Trump's actions on and before January 6th are all covered under the Presidential Immunity Doctrine. | |
| Which states that presidents are free to carry out their duties without threat of civil lawsuits. | |
| According to a Supreme Court decision from the year 1982, quote, the immunity protects presidents from civil lawsuits over official acts, or acts taken with the outer perimeter of his official responsibilities. | |
| And so Trump's basic argument here is that while serving as the president of the United States, questioning the results of a federal election that he himself believed to be unfair was well within the perimeter of his official responsibilities. | |
| However, the federal judge overseeing this January 6th case, well, she did not agree. | |
| Specifically, Judge Tanya Chutkin, who was appointed to the bench by Barack Obama, she issued a ruling about a week and a half ago wherein she dismissed these arguments of Trump's lawyers. | |
| Here was part of what she wrote in her official ruling. | |
| Quote, Former presidents enjoin no special conditions on their federal criminal liability. | |
| The defendant may be subject to federal investigation, indictment, prosecution, conviction, and punishment for any criminal acts undertaken while in office. | |
| And as such, she dismissed the presidential immunity argument and she allowed the case to proceed forward. | |
| However, as soon as she made that ruling, Trump's legal team, they came back and they immediately signaled that they will be filing an appeal with the appellate court and working to overturn her decision. | |
| Now, this type of procedural back and forth is not really uncommon before trial. | |
| Very, very typical. | |
| It's typical for both the defense and the prosecution to try and eke out any small amount of edge that they possibly can. | |
| However, there's something else going on here, which is the fact that by going through the appeals process, this case might get delayed, and the start of the actual trial might get pushed back a little bit. | |
| And that is something that Jack Smith does not want to see happen. | |
| Because you see, Jack Smith and his team of prosecutors, they're pushing to have this trial begin on Monday, March 4th, which is exactly one day before Super Tuesday. | |
| And in case you're not aware, Super Tuesday next year falls on March 5th. | |
| That's where 17 different states will hold their primary election. | |
| And for some odd reason, Jack Smith is adamant that Trump's criminal trial must begin on the day right before Super Tuesday. | |
| And so, in order to make sure that the courts stick to his schedule, Jack Smith took a rather surprising step. | |
| Earlier today, he filed an appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking them to quickly take up the case and decide whether President Trump can stand trial. | |
| Special Counsel Jack Smith on Monday asked the Supreme Court to take up and rule quickly on whether former President Donald Trump can be prosecuted. | |
| Smith is attempting to bypass the appeals court. | |
| The request filed on Monday for the Supreme Court to take up the matter directly reflects Smith's desire to keep the trial, currently set for March 4th, on track and to prevent any delays that could push back the case until after next year's presidential election. | |
| Meaning that in order to make sure that this criminal trial starts right in the middle of the primary election cycle, Jack Smith leapfrogged the typical judicial process, bypassed the appeals court, and submitted a request directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. | |
| Here's part of what he wrote in his request. | |
| Quote, 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 or is constitutionally protected from federal prosecution when he has been impeached but not convicted before the criminal proceedings begin. | |
| It is of imperative public importance that respondents' claims of immunity be resolved by this court and that respondents' trial proceed as promptly as possible if this claim of immunity is rejected. | |
| Jack Smith and his team then made a special point to mention that if the court did not expedite this matter, then they would not have an opportunity to consider this particular question in the current term, and then they finish the request by writing this. | |
| The United States recognizes that this is an extraordinary request. | |
| This is an extraordinary case. | |
| The court should grant certiorari and set a briefing schedule that would permit this case to be argued and resolved as promptly as possible. | |
| Now, based on the current schedule of the U.S. Supreme Court, the earliest that they would actually consider this appeal would be January 5th of next year, which is when the next private conference among the justices is scheduled for, meaning that the earliest that they can respond about whether they'll even take up the case or not will be in about three and a half weeks. | |
| However, even if they decide to take up the case, it's not like a decision will come instantaneously. | |
| A typical case before the U.S. Supreme Court, it lasts several months, from the time when the court agrees to take up the case up until a final decision is actually reached. | |
| And so, they would have to take up the case and then decide on it pretty quickly if Jack Smith is to have any hope of keeping the March 4th deadline. | |
| And so that's all to say that for Jack Smith and his team of prosecutors, having the U.S. Supreme Court accept their case right now and decide on it quickly, well, it's of utmost importance. | |
| Because it's their best shot to make sure that this criminal trial starts exactly one single day before the Super Tuesday primary elections. | |
| If you'd like to go deeper into this particular case and read the full 81-page request that Jack Smith submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court, I'll throw the PDF version of it down into the description box below this video if you're the type of person that likes to dig into the weeds. | |
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