CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said on Thursday that it is wrong to accuse the Supreme Court of intentionally taking extra time to decide on former President Donald Trump’s immunity case.
The New York Times on Wednesday published an opinion piece titled, “Something’s Rotten About the Justices Taking So Long on Trump’s Immunity Case” alleging there is politics at play as the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case over 110 days ago and Watergate took less than half that time. Honig on “Inside Politics” said it is inaccurate that there must be something “rotten” in how long the Supreme Court is taking to decide.
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“I respectfully dissent from that view,” Honig said. “I do not think something‘s necessarily really rotten or erroneous, or out of the ordinary. Let‘s put this in perspective. Watergate was a different era. The supreme court just doesn’t function like that anymore. And Watergate involved the sitting president under an active criminal investigation. I understand the stakes here, but let’s put this in perspective. The Trump immunity case, first of all, was the last case argued … Second of all, it‘s completely normal to get this sort of case dump in late June, sometimes into early July. This is when we get the big decisions.”
“Third of all, everyone relax,” he continued. “We are going to have this opinion within maybe tomorrow, maybe within a week, but sometime really soon. And finally, if you look at the actual time frame here, the Trump immunity decision was rendered at the district court, Judge Chutkan in December. To go from a district court ruling to a Supreme Court ruling in seven months is lightning speed. I understand everyone wants this as soon as possible. I understand the widely felt, not universal, but widely felt desire to get this case back to the district courts. So if there’s gonna be a trial, it can be held before the election.”
Special Counsel Jack Smith charged Trump in August with four counts of allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election on January 6, 2021. A three-judge appeals court panel unanimously rejected Trump’s immunity claim in a Feb. 6 ruling in the case.
“But I think people are maybe venting some anxiety inappropriately at the supreme court. And by the way, if you want to vent at somebody, look at DOJ who took two-and-a-half years to charge this case, not the Supreme Court that’s taking a grand total of a few months to decide,” Honig concluded.
Smith tried to maintain a December trial date for Trump by requesting the Supreme Court rule on the immunity question before the appeals court made its decision, but the justices denied to do so. Supreme Court justices when hearing oral arguments in April appeared to signal they may hand Trump a partial victory in his presidential immunity case by sending it back to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia , which could delay the trial until at least after the election.
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