Donald Trump is fighting to get time on his side as he urges the Supreme Court to halt his federal election trial while he continues to appeal his immunity case, according to a legal expert who's watching the case.
Every minute that clicks by as he works through appeals over his claim that the office of the president makes him immune from prosecution works in his favor, according to former litigator Lisa Rubin.
She pointed to the fact that the longer the court takes to decide, the more delay there is in his federal election interference case — and the closer he gets to a potential election win in November which could give him real power to either pardon himself or stop the prosecution.
Earlier this month, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that he is not immune — meaning the federal case for election interference can go ahead. It had been paused while the immunity claim was being heard by the court.
But Trump on Monday urged the Supreme Court to continue the pause, saying it should remain until he can appeal the lower court's ruling.
"If the Supreme Court does not grant the stay that Trump is asking for, then all bets are off, Judge (Tanya) Chutkan goes back to pre-trial proceedings, even if at that point they were to grant a review, it would not impede her from returning the case to all of the motion practice and other things that need to happen to schedule a trial, or just setting that jury questionnaire in motion, which was supposed to happen in February," said Rubin while appearing on MSNBC with Alex Wagner.
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But if the Supreme Court rules to continue the pause, Trump's trial edges closer to not happening before the election.
Rubin said the Supreme Court's not making an immediate decision suggests not all the justices are on the same page.
Rubin noted: "If on the other hand, we are waiting a few days, there is a school of thought on what we are waiting for is that there are a few folks that will dissent from whatever is going happen."
In Trump’s most recent filing to the court, he took aim at special counsel Jack Smith for opposing Trump’s request that the court pause the trial.
That final brief accused Smith of creating “the appearance of partisanship.”
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It continued: “As before, there is no mystery about the Special Counsel’s motivation. Commentators across the political spectrum point to the obvious — the Special Counsel seeks to bring President Trump to trial and to secure a conviction before the November election in which President Trump is the leading candidate against President Biden.”
For Rubin, the former president's aim is to stall and, if the Supreme Court justices take their time, that means his efforts may prove to be successful.
"The court is giving those people time to write," she said. "Those could be dissent to the cert" — meaning enough justices agree to review the case — or "those could be dissent from a stay."
Either way, she submits, "The longer it takes to get to the ruling, the more likely it is that it will go in Donald Trump's favor, I believe."
