Attorney Neal Katyal said Saturday that the Supreme Court would not hear former President Donald Trump’s “bogus” arguments about presidential immunity regarding the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
The former president was indicted in August by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for his alleged role on January 6, during which Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., where Congress was certifying the results of Joe Biden’s 2020 election win. The riot followed unsubstantiated claims made by Trump that the election was stolen from him via widespread voter fraud. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. Trump has also accused prosecutors of targeting him for political purposes as he is the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Appearing on MSNBC’s The Saturday Show with Jonathan Capehart, Katyal, the former acting solicitor general of the United States during the Obama administration, weighed in on how the Supreme Court would react if Trump were to take his criminal case to them.
“I think basically, there will be a quick appeal to the D.C. Circuit, I suspect the D.C. Circuit would rule against him quickly based on the ruling from yesterday,” he said. “Then Trump will try to take it to the Supreme Court and I don’t see any appetite for the Supreme Court entertaining such bogus arguments.”
Newsweek reached out to Katyal and one of Trump’s lawyers on the case, John Lauro, via email for comment.
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Trump’s lawyers have been trying to dismiss the federal case on the grounds of presidential immunity, but were dealt with two hard losses on Friday.
Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over Trump’s election interference case, ruled that the former president does not have presidential immunity. She wrote in the opinion, “Defendant’s four-year service as Commander in Chief did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens.”
Meanwhile, Trump is also facing three lawsuits filed by U.S. Capitol police officers and members of Congress over the riot. Trump’s lawyers again tried to claim presidential immunity as a way to protect him from liability, but the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to dismiss the lawsuits on Friday on that basis.
Katyal explained Saturday that Trump is just trying to delay his election interference trial, which is set for March 2024.
“I won’t be surprised if Trump’s [lawyers’] next move is to say their client can’t go to trial on any day that ends in letter Y,” he said.
Trump’s lawyers have been trying to push back several criminal cases against the former president, all of which he denies any wrongdoing, citing conflicts with his campaign schedule.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.