'Side with the liberals': Experts predict surprise opponent to Trump's SCOTUS case

Donald Trump could be facing a rebuke from one of the Supreme Court’s most conservative justices — and one that he appointed to the bench.

Several legal experts believe Amy Coney Barrett is leaning against the former president after listening to the arguments made in his claim that he should have presidential immunity from criminal prosecution.

And they say the right-wing jurist’s questions suggest she thinks Trump should be standing trial in special counsel Jack Smith’s election interference case against him.

Trump's attorneys claimed his actions on January 6 were official acts as president and should, therefore, not be eligible for prosecution.

But former prosecutor Shanlon Wu told Newsweek, "From [Barrett’s] questions, it did seem that she was not buying into a complete immunity, meaning you can't consider anything about it.

"She was sort of interested in exploring whether these same immunity arguments are more appropriately raised, perhaps as trial defenses."

Though the court has not yet ruled, analysts say it looks likely they’ll send the case back to the lower court to delve more into which acts were done as a private citizen, removing any question of immunity.

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Some suggested Smith might pare down his indictment to remove action that could be argued to have been done in a presidential capacity.

"I don't think you'd get a majority completely siding with Trump that you simply can't bring the case, period," Wu told Newsweek.

"I think it's more likely if they side with Trump, they'd send it back down."

Another former federal prosecutor, Neama Rahmani, agreed, telling Newsweek he expects Barrett to, "Side with the liberals in rejecting the appeal" and rule that "our current system works well and that Trump's radical proposal was unnecessary."

"I think the justices will send the case back to the lower courts to determine whether the fake electors and events leading up to the Capitol riots were official acts," he said.

"There seem to be four votes mostly against Trump — the four women. Kavanaugh is seemingly not in play. This is going to come down to Chief Justice John Roberts, who will write the opinion. What he'll say, not so sure," wrote The Economist journalist Steven Mazi on X.