Appellate judges agree to speed up Trump's presidential immunity review

A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has agreed to expedite former President Donald Trump's appeal of the decision denying him "presidential immunity" from prosecution, reported MSNBC legal expert Lisa Rubin on Wednesday.

The panel of judges consists of one appointed by former President George W. Bush and two appointed by President Joe Biden — including, as Rubin noted, "one championed by [Sen.] Lindsey Graham."

All of this comes as the Supreme Court decides whether or not to take up an expedited review of the case, bypassing the appellate court entirely, which special counsel Jack Smith made a motion for earlier this week.

"This means that if SCOTUS wants to, it has three days to save their lower court colleagues' holidays by granting or denying the cert petition on or before 12/23," Rubin wrote.

She added that "there are no SCOTUS conferences (e.g., when the justices meet privately to weigh which cases to take) scheduled for late December."

"But can they arrange one? Can't see why not. Indeed, they can move FAST when they want to. Bush v. Gore was decided 4 days after the FL Supreme Court ordered immediate manual recounts of certain votes & after SCOTUS decided to treat Bush's request to stay that order as a cert petition," Rubin noted.

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District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the case, previously ruled Trump is not immune from prosecution, in part because his alleged efforts to illegally overturn the 2020 presidential election were not part of his duties in office.

As the immunity question works its way to higher courts, Chutkan has suspended all proceedings in the trial until the matter is resolved.