CNN senior legal analyst Ellie Honig said Monday that a trial for former President Donald Trump's actions on January 6th will not take place before the November election.
The Supreme Court on Monday ruled to dismiss Special Counsel Jack Smith's lawsuit over President Trump's immunity, finding that the president is immune from criminal prosecution for “official acts” while in office. Honig told CNN that Trump's trial on four felony charges related to his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election is unlikely to take place in the coming months due to continued delays caused by appeals. (Related story: Left-wing district attorney, Biden Justice Department alum secures Trump conviction in Biden donor blue district court)
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'Zero chance': CNN's Elie Honig denies Democrats hopes Trump trial will take place before election pic.twitter.com/aHpC3zhCSl
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“This case will not be before the election. It will not be heard before the election, and here's why,” Honig said. “The Supreme Court just said there is something called criminal immunity. The test, as we would expect, is essentially official acts vs. unofficial acts. We're remanding this back to the district court. And this is an important detail. The court has said time and time again that whatever the district court rules, it can be appealed before trial.”
“Jack Smith argued, well, maybe a district judge or a lower court judge could resolve that and send it to a jury, and a jury could distinguish between official and non-official conduct,” he continued. “In that opinion, the Supreme Court, in its majority, has stated clearly over and over again that whatever a judge determines to be official or non-official, what is exempt or not exempt, can be appealed. There is zero chance that that will happen before November.”
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the case, rejected Trump's attempt to dismiss the lawsuit in December and initially scheduled the trial for March.
“Under our constitutional separation of powers structure, the nature of presidential power means that a former president is entitled to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for acts that fall within the scope of his categorical and exclusive constitutional authority,” the court ruled Monday. “He is also entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. He has no immunity for unofficial acts.”
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