Donald Trump’s lawyers invoked the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling in a filing on Friday afternoon in his federal classified documents case, asking U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to pause the proceedings so they can lay the groundwork to have the case dismissed.
The filing goes on to claim that President Joe Biden’s rebuke of the Supreme Court for instituting virtually no limits on a president’s power was proof that Biden had coordinated with the Justice Department to target Trump. The claim that the criminal justice system has been weaponized against Trump is a long-running accusation that Republicans have leveled against Democrats, even as Trump himself has vowed to use the power of his office to punish his enemies if re-elected. (Read more from my colleague Ja’han Jones on the right’s deployment of the “lawfare” claim against Democrats.)
Cannon agreed on Saturday to push back some deadlines in the case, giving special counsel Jack Smith until July 18 to respond to the request for further delay.
The high court ruled on Monday that Trump is immune from criminal prosecution for some official acts in his federal election interference case, but the decision also threatens the prosecution of Trump’s other ongoing criminal cases, as well as his conviction in the New York hush money case. The sentencing hearing for the latter, initially scheduled for July 11, was pushed back to September following the immunity ruling, as his attorneys seek to toss out the conviction entirely.
Trump’s classified documents case was already bogged down by a host of issues, in large part because of Cannon’s decisions (or the lack thereof), which have baffled legal experts. She has refused to set a trial date, opting instead to hold long evidentiary hearings on motions, and has moved the case along with little sense of urgency. The defense also presented a presidential immunity argument in the case back in February.
A trial in the classified documents case — already unlikely to happen before November — now seems an even more remote possibility altogether.