Dem
51
GOP
49
He waited until the last possible moment, for obvious reasons, but Donald Trump has now filed a motion asking the Supreme Court to intervene in his presidential immunity case.
Trump's lawyers appear to believe that the Supremes are, for lack of a better word, stupid. Consider this passage from the brief, to take just one example:
President Trump is the leading candidate for President in the 2024 election. Conducting a months-long criminal trial of President Trump at the height of election season will radically disrupt President Trump's ability to campaign against President Biden—which appears to be the whole point of the Special Counsel's persistent demands for expedition. The D.C. Circuit's order thus threatens immediate irreparable injury to the First Amendment interests of President Trump and tens of millions of American voters, who are entitled to hear President Trump's campaign message as they decide how to cast their ballots in November.
He's not "former president" Trump, he's "President Trump." And he's not "a leading candidate" he's "the leading candidate." And Jack Smith isn't doing the job he was hired to do, he's a hatchet man for Joe Biden. Maybe Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas will nod as they read this passage, but can any of the other seven take this the slightest bit seriously? And the motion is just full of stuff like this, such as claiming that the lower court's decision was an "extraordinary departure from ordinary appellate procedures" and that if there is an en banc hearing, there is a "fair prospect" the decision will be reversed.
And that brings us to the main thrust of the filing. What Trump wants is for the Supremes to stay the decision so that he can ask for the aforementioned en banc hearing, and THEN potentially appeal to SCOTUS if he does not like the result. Again, does he think Chief Justice John Roberts & Co. are daft and cannot see through this? Trump's attorneys might just as well write: "Hey guys and gals, we'd love to waste 4-5 months with nothing getting done on this case. Can you help us out?"
It's actually Roberts who is the gatekeeper for appeals from the D.C. Circuit, so he'll be making some decisions very soon, and within the next week or so, we should know what the plan is, and whether Trump's stalling tactics will be at all successful. Note that it takes five justices to agree to a stay, so if Roberts isn't buying what Trump is selling, then all of the other conservatives would have to band together to try to save Trump's bacon. Thus far, several of those five have shown no particular interest in helping Trump thwart the legal system. (Z)