What it means for Donald Trump as Supreme Court orders former POTUS to respond to Jack Smith amid immunity appeal

WASHINGTON, DC: Special Counsel Jack Smith requested that the justices promptly decide whether to hear arguments on the crucial issue of presidential immunity, which is at the center of Smith's federal criminal case against Donald Trump.

On Monday, December 11, the US Supreme Court agreed to take up Smith's request, according to sources.

Before delving into the details of the former president's case, the justices approved Smith's move, which was submitted earlier in the day, "to expedite consideration" of a petition for a writ of certiorari, in a one-sentence ruling.

The 14-page petition, which explores whether a former president is exempted from federal prosecution for crimes committed while in office and whether an impeached president who was cleared by the Senate can still face criminal charges, was received by the former president's attorneys on December 20. The Supreme Court directed the attorneys to reply in writing to the petition by that date.

Donald Trump's claim for special immunity denied

To keep the former president's trial connected to the events of January 6, scheduled for March on track, Jack Smith had requested the Supreme Court to accelerate its assessment of Donald Trump's claim of exceptional immunity from prosecution.

The trial has been scheduled for March 4, the day before Super Tuesday, by Judge Tanya Chutkan, who in her own decision denied Trump's claim of immunity. The first of four criminal trials against Trump that are being handled by several courts is the one she is now supervising.

Earlier in December, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled against Trump, rejecting his attempts to use "presidential immunity" and the First Amendment to have Smith's charges dropped.

Chutkan has set the date for the jury selection phase of the Trump federal trial in Washington, D.C. for March 4, 2024. However, this date may change depending on the resolution of ongoing legal disputes that both parties have been preparing for the country's top court to determine.

Donald Trump's White House cell phone data

According to a court document on Monday, December 11, Jack Smith intends to utilize information from former president Trump's White House mobile phone in the federal lawsuit involving election meddling in 2020.

The former president's and another unidentified person's phones contain "extracted and processed data", which Smith intends to present to an expert witness.

The witness would also ascertain how the phones were used following the 2020 election, particularly on or around January 6, 2021. According to the court brief, this includes the times when Trump's phone had the X (formerly Twitter) app open on the day of the Capitol disturbance.

What SC order means for Donald Trump?

Even though he is facing an unprecedented four criminal charges accusing him of 91 violations, all of which he has denied, Donald Trump remains the clear favorite to win the Republican nominee in 2024, as per voanews.com.

Should he win the presidency once more and there were still no federal trials scheduled, he could order his attorney general to dismiss the two cases that Smith had filed: the one about election conspiracy and the other, which was scheduled for May in the Southern state of Florida and accused him of mishandling classified documents while he was leaving office.

During his four years in office, Trump appointed three of the nine justices now serving on the Supreme Court. However, the former president's record before the Supreme Court is not favorable.

Requests by Trump and his allies to participate in challenges to the outcome of the 2020 election were denied by the justices. They also rejected his arguments that he was shielded from scrutiny by the president and rebuffed his attempts to prevent the disclosure of his financial data.