Supreme Court Declines Jack Smith’s Trump Immunity Review

The Supreme Court has denied a petition from Special Counsel Jack Smith to fast-track a ruling on whether former President Donald Trump is immune from criminal prosecution for any crimes he committed while in office. The single-sentence rejection, released on Friday, contained no explanation of the court’s reasoning.

The high court’s decision could ultimately lead to a delay of the scheduled March trial date for Smith’s election subversion case against Trump.

Trump’s lawyers argue he has “absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions performed within the ‘outer perimeter’ of his official responsibility” as president. The question of presidential immunity will now return to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C., where a hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 9, and could return to the Supreme Court’s docket at a later date. 

Earlier this month, Smith requested the high court directly rule on the question of presidential immunity after D.C. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled against a bid by the former president to have the Department of Justice’s case against him thrown out under said rationale. 

“Whatever immunities a sitting president may enjoy, the United States has only one chief executive at a time, and that position does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass. Former presidents enjoy no special conditions on their federal criminal liability. Defendant may be subject to federal investigation, indictment, prosecution, conviction, and punishment for any criminal acts undertaken while in office,” Chutkan wrote in her Dec. 11 decision, adding that his “four-year service as Commander in Chief did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens.”   

On Thursday, Trump indicated that he may petition the Supreme Court to exercise a separate presidential immunity defense in an upcoming defamation trial brought against him by author E. Jean Carroll. Earlier this year the former president was found liable for defamation and battery against Carroll, who alleges she was sexually assaulted by Trump in the 90’s. In September, Trump was once again found liable for defaming Carroll and will go to trial to establish the amount of damages owed to the author in early January.