CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said Monday that former President Donald Trump’s trial over his actions on Jan. 6 will not occur before the election in November.
The Supreme Court ruled Monday on Trump’s immunity appeal to dismiss special counsel Jack Smith’s case against him, finding that presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution for “official acts” taken in office.
Honig said on CNN that there is no chance of the trial, where Trump faces four felony counts relating to alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, taking place in the coming months as appeals will continue to delay it.
Read: U.S. Supreme Court Issues Ruling On Former President Trump’s Immunity
“This case will not go before the election. It will not be tried before the election, and here’s why,” Honig said. “Supreme Court has just said there is such thing as criminal immunity. The test, as we anticipated, essentially, official acts versus unofficial acts. We’re sending it back to the district court. And this is an important detail. The court says several times, whatever the district court finds can be appealed before trial.”
“Jack Smith had made an argument of well, maybe the district judge, the trial judge can work it out and send it to the jury. And then the jury can separate official from unofficial acts,” he continued. “Several times in this opinion, the Supreme Court, the majority, says explicitly: whatever the judge decides about what’s official or unofficial, what’s immune or not immune, that can be appealed back up. 0% chance that happens before November.”
District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the case, previously rejected Trump’s effort to dismiss the case in December and initially scheduled the trial for March.
Read: U.S. Supreme Court Issues Ruling On Former President Trump’s Immunity
“Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority,” the court held on Monday. “And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts.”
First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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