Jack Smith placing 'backstops' to prevent SCOTUS from tossing Jan. 6 case: expert

Special counsel Jack Smith's team filed a U.S. Supreme Court brief urging the justices to reject Donald Trump's immunity claim in his federal election subversion case.

The former president has appealed a District of Columbia Circuit Court ruling against his claim, which will be heard by the high court on April 25, and MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin highlighted the special counsel's effort to dissuade sympathetic conservative justices from tossing the criminal case.

"This is Jack Smith's one chance to respond in writing to the Supreme Court on these issues," Rubin told "Morning Joe." "Many things they say in the brief we've seen them say at least twice before. They said it to Judge [Tanya] Chutkan, who ruled Donald Trump was not immune. They said it to the D.C. Circuit, who made a similar ruling. What is newer here is the audience and how Jack Smith pitched the argument to account for the possibility there are folks on this court who won't only find a former president could be immune for official acts but might be inclined to find some of what has been alleged here could also be official."

READ MORE: Revealed: What government officials privately shared about Trump not disclosing finances

Smith said the charges he filed against Trump described "an unprecedented assault on the structure of our government," saying that not even a president was above the law, and asked them to reject claims that his efforts to remain in office despite losing an election were political, not official.

"In the last pages of the brief, you see Jack Smith trying to account for the contingencies and build in a number of backstops, as, like, if/then statements," Rubin said. "If some of these things strike you as official, that doesn't mean the whole case gets thrown out. because this is largely a private conspiracy designed to forward a private aim, that is of keeping Donald Trump in office, which is a campaign act, not an official one."

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