Politics
WATCH: Liberal Legal Expert Admits Jack Smith’s DC Case Is Now ‘On Life Support’
Another liberal legal analyst is publicly admitting that the federal election interference case against former President Donald Trump is on “life support” in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to take up a review of his claims of presidential immunity.
Andrew Weissman sounded a note of pessimism when asked where special counsel Jack Smith’s case stood against the Republican. Even if Trump is not vindicated on his immunity claim, Weissman said, the nation’s highest court has still handed him a decisive victory.
“I do not have the view that they took this case because they’re going to hand out a win to Donald Trump in the Colorado case, but here they’re going to give him a defeat by essentially saying there is no presidential immunity in this case. Yes of course I think they will ultimately not grant immunity in this case, but they have given him the win because the D.C. case, let’s just face it, is on life support now,” Weissman said on MSNBC.
“It is really, really hard to figure out how this case gets to trial before the election, and I think that’s the end result of what they did here… meaning if Joe Biden wins the case goes forward, but if he loses, the case is over,” he added.
WATCH:
The other element to the legal saga, Weissman said, is Trump’s efforts to keep his D.C. case on hold “at all costs” and avoid the litigation of allegations made in Smith’s indictment.
“He’s trying to avoid at all costs the facts of what happened that are charged in this indictment that they do not get presented in court where facts actually matter and people will hear it. So he can continue to say this is all just a smear campaign by his political adversaries.”
Whether or not one agrees with Weissman’s analysis, the fact that time is running short to prosecute President Trump is increasingly unavoidable. The former president’s D.C. case, as well as his other federal case alleging the mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, have both been paused while the Supreme Court mulls his immunity claim. Legal observers have noted that Trump’s team could string out appeals of his original loss on the immunity claims for as long as 90 days, pushing the start of both federal trials into the summer. Other elements, including routine requests to review millions of pages of evidence introduced by Smith, will add to the delay.
Making matters more complicated is the Justice Department’s longstanding policy to pause politically sensitive trials 60 days in advance of major elections, meaning if Trump is not convicted or acquitted by September 5th, he may never again see a day in court if he defeats President Biden.