Weighing in on former President Donald Trump‘s Supreme Court request to have his election subversion trial delayed, Harvard Law School star and constitutional law expert Laurence Tribe made the startling assertion that Trump’s own request to the court presumes he’ll be found guilty by a jury in the case.
Tribe wrote: “In the reply urging SCOTUS to delay his DC criminal trial, Trump let the cat out of the bag. He said Jack Smith wants to finish the trial before November because the verdict will obviously hurt Trump’s chances. Really? That admits he’ll be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt!”
In the reply urging SCOTUS to delay his DC criminal trial, Trump let the cat out of the bag. He said Jack Smith wants to finish the trial before November because the verdict will obviously hurt Trump’s chances. Really? That admits he’ll be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt!
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) February 16, 2024
Tribe’s pointing out Trump’s expectation of a guilty verdict at trial is a sort of “gotcha” moment, but Trump’s SCOTUS request for a stay has also been criticized for being largely tangential to the legal issues at hand, as legal analyst Lisa Rubin asserts below.
In Trump’s portrayal, Smith’s sole reason to insist on a speedy trial would be to ruin Trump’s candidacy. What if the special counsel simply thinks Trump should be tried so that 1) voters have all the information; and 2) he cannot escape any trial at all through reelection? 2/
— Lisa Rubin (@lawofruby) February 16, 2024
Special Counsel Smith acknowledged the extralegal circumstances unique to the case in swiftly submitting a 40-page response to Trump’s motion for a stay, emphasizing reasons a speedy trial is imperative.
Arguing that the exceptional case warrants special consideration, the Special Counsel’s office asserted in its Response in Opposition to Application For A Stay that a delay was against the public interest:
“Delay in the resolution of these charges threatens to frustrate the public interest in a speedy and fair verdict — a compelling interest in every criminal case and one that has unique national importance here, as it involves federal criminal charges against a former President for alleged criminal efforts to overturn the results of the Presidential election, including through the use of official power.”
Smith wrote to the Supreme Court: “The conduct alleged in the indictment is of unparalleled gravity. There is a national interest in seeing the crimes alleged in this case resolved promptly.”
Trump has repeatedly characterized the various prosecutions against him — he currently faces 91 criminal charges in four separate cases, as well as numerous civil suits — as election interference, since while the prosecutions proceed he is simultaneously running for president.
In the election interference case, Trump has been charged with “trying to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters by refusing to accept the 2020 election results,” a crime for which Tribe says Trump expects a guilty verdict.