Trump’s Craziest Legal Argument May Be Headed to the Supreme Court

On Monday, the Justice Department’s prosecution of Donald Trump for allegedly trying to steal the 2020 election splintered into a multi-level litigation effort with a clear and singular goal: ensuring that Trump stands trial before the presidential election next November. That is the bottom-line takeaway from a remarkable series of events that occurred in rapid succession in the last two weeks, including a surprise petition by prosecutors asking the Supreme Court to intervene.

A quick recap: Trump is slated to go on trial in Washington early next year, and this month, the district judge overseeing the case, Tanya Chutkan,denied two of his motions to dismiss the case: One arguing that Trump is “absolutely immune” from criminal prosecution because he was the president at the time of the relevant conduct, and the second claiming that the prosecution violates “double jeopardy” principles because Republicans in the Senate rallied to acquit Trump after he was impeached by the House following the siege of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

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