The US Supreme Court declined on Friday to immediately hear former president Donald Trump’s claim that he is immune from prosecution, potentially delaying his 2020 election interference trial.
Special Counsel Jack Smith had asked the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, to take up the immunity case on an expedited basis, bypassing the federal court of appeals.
The nation’s highest court denied the request, however, in a one-line order that did not provide any reason for the decision.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is to preside over Trump’s March trial for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, rejected the immunity claim on December 1.
Trump’s lawyers appealed the decision to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit and Smith, the special counsel, asked the Supreme Court to step in and hear the case itself.
With the Supreme Court rejection of Smith’s request, the appeals court will now hear the case, potentially delaying the March start of Trump’s trial. The appeals court has scheduled opening arguments for January 9.
Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly sought to delay the historic trial until after the November 2024 election including with the claim that the former president enjoys “absolute immunity” and cannot be prosecuted for actions he took while in the White House.
The 77-year-old Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, was indicted in August for seeking to upend the results of the November 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden in a concerted effort that led to the violent January 6, 2021 attack by his supporters on the US Capitol.
