Why Jack Smith appealed directly to SCOTUS, with Trump trying to delay case past the election

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A spokesman for Donald Trump says Jack Smith – that is, "Deranged Jack Smith" – is throwing a Hail Mary.

Well, the wild pass was caught.

The special counsel decided to appeal the question of Trump’s immunity from prosecution directly to the Supreme Court, thereby leapfrogging an appeals court review that could drag on for months.

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Lo and behold, the wild pass was caught.

The high court agreed within hours Monday to take the case.  

What’s happening here does resemble a football game. Smith and his team are doing everything in their power to quickly get to the end zone, so he can begin Trump’s trial for trying to overturn an election on its scheduled March date. Trump and his team are playing prevent defense, trying to slow down the game and drag things out until after the election.

Former President Donald Trump waves to the crowd on the field during halftime in the Palmetto Bowl between Clemson and South Carolina at Williams Brice Stadium on Nov. 25, 2023, in Columbia, South Carolina. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

With each side working the legal refs, Smith undoubtedly figured that the case will ultimately end up with SCOTUS anyway, so why not go for broke?

But the court’s expedited decision won’t necessarily go Smith’s way.

For one thing, the high court doesn’t like to rule on controversial issues until it has to. So the justices could simply say that they’re sending it back to the appellate court for its decision before dealing with the substance.

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At the same time, even though three of the members in the 6-3 conservative majority are Trump appointees, he hasn’t fared well there lately.

As the Washington Post notes: "Last year, the court refused Trump’s request to block the release of some of his White House records to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob that was trying to heed his calls to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory. The justices also denied Trump’s effort to block a congressional committee from examining his tax returns."

The judge in the D.C. case, Tanya Chutkin, ruled in Smith’s favor in the Jan. 6 case. Trump appealed, prompting the prosecutor’s aggressive SCOTUS move.

Former President Trump points after delivering remarks at a campaign rally at the Ted Hendricks Stadium at Henry Milander Park on Nov. 8, 2023, in Hialeah, Florida. (Alon Skuy/Getty Images)

In his filing, Smith said: "It is unusual for the government to ask the court to disrupt the judicial process, and to do so quickly." "The United States recognizes that this is an extraordinary request," Smith wrote. "This is an extraordinary case."

No argument there. He said the former president’s immunity claims "are profoundly mistaken, as the district court held. But only this Court can definitively resolve them."

No argument on that point. The Trump camp responded that "there is absolutely no reason to rush this sham to trial except to injure President Trump and tens of millions of his supporters."

Former President Donald Trump walks to the stage at the Ted Hendricks Stadium at Henry Milander Park on Nov. 8, 2023, in Hialeah, Florida. (Alon Skuy/Getty Images)

Well, that’s true – leaving aside the word "sham" – which is why the case has profound political importance.

Smith wants to get a conviction in the Jan. 6 case – which, by the way, may not be a slam-dunk–before the election, which could clearly damage the Republican frontrunner’s chances.

Trump figures that if he can just delay the case until after the election, and since he has a good shot at winning back the White House, he could simply order his attorney general to drop both federal cases.

So while each side accuses the other of impure motives, this is a power struggle with the presidency potentially at stake.

Meanwhile, in classic Trump fashion, he now says he was joking when he told Sean Hannity he would be a dictator but "only on day one."

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What the former president did at that Iowa town hall last week was to say something he knew would drive the media wild and enable it to dominate the news cycle for days.

Now, a week later, having accomplished his goal, he says, just kidding.

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And that revives the story for another cycle or two.