Nearly half of America’s state attorneys general today joined with former President Donald Trump in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to delay his Washington, D.C., trial on Jan. 6 charges until the high court rules on his presidential immunity case.
In an 18-page brief, the officials argued that special counsel Jack Smith is trying to speed up his case in hopes that a guilty finding will derail Trump’s campaign to win back the White House and keep President Joe Biden in office.
“The sudden urgency has invited public speculation that this case has an improper purpose — to influence the 2024 election,” the attorneys general said, adding that they “represent millions of Americans, many of whom worry that the timing of this prosecution was calculated to silence or to imprison President Biden’s political rival.”
It was signed by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
It was led by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall. In a statement shared with Secrets, Marshall said, “After waiting 30 months to file these charges against President Trump, the United States wants us to believe that time is of the essence.”
But, he added, “Biden’s Department of Justice has given no reason for its delay in bringing these charges, or for its demand to rush this trial and short-circuit review of weighty constitutional issues. All that suggests that the special counsel wants to protect President Biden by convicting his challenger right before the election. If that’s true, it would be deeply improper and a clear breach of Department of Justice rules.”
Earlier this week, Smith asked the high court to rule against Trump’s delay plea.
“The nation has a compelling interest in seeing the charges brought to trial,” Smith said in his filing. He added that “the public interest in a prompt trial is at its zenith where, as here, a former president is charged with conspiring to subvert the electoral process so that he could remain in office.”
At issue is Smith’s bid to push his Jan. 6 case to trial before the Supreme Court rules on a separate issue of whether or not Trump, while president, had immunity from charges during and after his presidency.
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The 22-state coalition’s brief argues that the Supreme Court should halt proceedings until it can review Trump’s immunity claim. “Before a former president faces a federal criminal trial for the first time in our nation’s history, this court should decide whether such a trial is permitted by the Constitution,” the brief said.
What’s more, they said that beyond politics, democracy is at stake in Smith’s effort to speed up his case against Trump. “It should go without saying that timing a criminal prosecution to influence an election is no way to protect democracy, and it is not a legitimate end of law enforcement.”