Donald Trump must file an emergency petition with the Supreme Court on Monday or face trial over alleged election interference and the January 6 riot.
The Washington D.C Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his presidential immunity claim on February 6 and gave him until Monday, February 12 to file an emergency stay request with the Supreme Court. If Trump does so, it will put the trial on hold.
He will then have to file a full petition to the Supreme Court asking it to hear the case.
Newsweek emailed Trump’s attorney on Monday seeking comment.
If he misses today’s deadline, Judge Tanya Chutkan will be free to put the case back on her diary.
She was originally due to have a jury sworn in on the case this month and the trial was due to begin on March 4, 2024.
However, the trial has been put on hold while Trump appeals to higher courts, claiming he has presidential immunity from prosecution.
Trump, the GOP frontrunner in the 2024 presidential election, has already said he will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
On February 6, the Court of Appeals ruled that Trump is not immune from criminal prosecution, allowing special counsel Jack Smith to prosecute Trump on the four criminal charges related to his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. In August 2023, Trump was indicted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for his alleged role in the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. The former president has pleaded not guilty and has said the case against him is politically motivated.
Tuesday’s unanimous appeal court opinion said the former president can face trial on charges that he plotted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, one of four prosecutions he is fighting as he seeks to reclaim the White House in 2024.
The judges rejected the argument that a president has “unbounded authority to commit crimes” that would prevent the recognition of election results or violate the rights of citizens to vote and have their votes count.
“We cannot accept that the office of the presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter,” the judges wrote.
Trump blasted it as a “nation-destroying ruling” that “cannot be allowed to stand.”
Chutkan, who is overseeing the election interference trial in Washington, D.C., also rejected the immunity argument, ruling in December that the office of the presidency “does not confer a ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass.” She put the case on hold while Trump pursued his immunity claims, and last week she postponed the scheduled March 4 trial date.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.