The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear a case that could have profoundly positive implications for former President Donald Trump.
Earlier this week, special counsel Jack Smith filed a motion with the high court seeking a ruling on whether Trump could be prosecuted for actions on the day of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol Building.
According to Politico, “The case, arising from the prosecution of a Jan. 6 defendant accused of pushing against police and inflaming a mob attempting to breach the Capitol, calls into question prosecutors’ handling of an Enron-era obstruction law to punish those who stormed Congress.”
The charge is “obstruction of an official proceeding,” and it is one of the felony counts that Trump himself faces in his so-called ‘election interference’ case filed by Smith. That charge alone carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
A ruling favorable to Trump would not only throw the hundreds of remaining Jan. 6 cases into jeopardy but could also serve to end Smith’s Jan. 6 case against Trump. Smith’s Monday motion asked justices to determine whether Trump has immunity from being prosecuted.
Trump’s team issued a scathing response to Smith’s filing.
“Crooked Joe Biden’s henchman, Deranged Jack Smith, is so obsessed with interfering in the 2024 Presidential Election to prevent 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 Trump spokesperson said of the filing.
The statement also alluded to Smith’s supervision of the Department of Justice’s public integrity unit, which successfully obtained a bribery and extortion conviction against former Virginia Republican Governor Bob McDonnell in a gift case, noting that it was so poorly prosecuted that the Supreme Court ultimately overturned the conviction with an 8-0 decision in 2016.
“Deranged may need to be reminded that the Supreme Court has not been kind to him, including by handing down a rare unanimous rebuke when the Court overturned him 8-0 in the McDonnell case,” the spokesperson added.
Following the district court judge’s dismissal of Trump’s immunity claims last week, the former president’s legal team promptly filed an appeal, seeking a temporary halt in the court proceedings.
Smith’s legal team subsequently petitioned the nation’s highest court on Monday to examine the question of immunity before a D.C.-based federal appeals court could make a ruling on the issue. They argued that there is precedent from the Nixon Watergate tapes case in the early 1970s.
