Trump immunity ruling by appeals court could short circuit SCOTUS stepping in: expert

According to former FBI official Andrew McCabe, the decision by the Supreme Court to defer to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on the issue of Donald Trump's presidential immunity claim might end the legal fracas at that level.

With the nation's highest court punting the filing by special counsel Jack Smith to speed up the process of determining whether the former president is immune from prosecution for alleged crimes, McCabe stated an adverse ruling by the fully seated (en banc) D.C. circuit court could get the Supreme Court off the hook.

As Newsweek is reporting, McCabe made a recent appearance on the Jack: A Special Counsel Podcast with host Allison Gill, where he claimed it is possible the Supreme Court won't step in if the lower court shoots down Trump's legal team's argument as expected.

According to McCabe, if the full appeals court court agrees with Judge Tanya Chutkan that the former president is not protected by presidential immunity, that will give the Supreme Court a pretext to not intercede on Trump's inevitable appeal.

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"Ironically, I think he goes through that step, and then he gets an en banc hearing, I think that makes the likelihood of a Supreme Court issuing cert even lower because by then you would have had likely two very consistent, very sound opinions by the most respected circuit court in the country," he explained.

He then added, "And it may kind of lift the responsibility from the Supreme Court's shoulders to weigh in on it if they feel like it's been adequately covered."