Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Supreme Court QUICKLY RESPONDS to Trump Application

Episode Date: February 13, 2024

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on the Supreme Court response to Donald Trump’s application for a stay of the mandate after the DC Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his claim for absolute presidential immunity. Sign up for a one-dollar per month trial at https://shopify.com/legalaf Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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dash pru dash disclaimer. The United States Supreme Court has just responded to Donald Trump's application before the United States Supreme Court for a stay of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals mandate of their judgment where the DC Circuit Court of Appeals mandate of their judgment where the DC Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court federal judge Tanya Chutkin's order, denying Donald Trump's motion to dismiss the Washington, DC federal criminal case being prosecuted by special counsel Jack Smith on the frivolous grounds of

absolute presidential immunity. You'll recall that last week the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court's order. In other words, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals found that Donald Trump is not entitled to absolute presidential immunity. What the DC Circuit Court of Appeals said is that our mandate will issue. In other words, we're going to send our judgment back to the DC federal court and they can resume their proceedings unless you, Donald Trump, file an application for a stay with the Supreme Court of our mandate pending certiorari, meaning pending an appeal before the United States Supreme Court, if they grant that.

You have until February 12th to do that. Donald Trump filed the application for a stay before the Supreme Court on February 12th. Go over what Donald Trump argued in just a moment. So that was yesterday and then today on February 13th, Chief Justice John Roberts of the Supreme Court has now given special counsel Jack Smith until 4pm Eastern time on February 20th to respond to Donald Trump's filing to the Supreme Court yesterday. So special counsel Jack Smith in my view will likely respond sooner than February 20th at 4pm Eastern time.

If Donald Trump got a deadline like that, Donald Trump will usually wait until the very last minute and try to do anything in his power not to expedite these proceedings. My expectation is that within the next 24 to 48 hours, but I think certainly this week, Special counsel, Jack Smith is going to file his position regarding Donald Trump's application for a stay with the Supreme Court pending certiorari. Let me just break this down. I'm throwing a lot of legal jargon and a lot of terms out there, but let me just explain this to you so you understand it. Right back in early December, the Washington, D.C. federal criminal judge presiding over the Trump's

criminal case, federal judge Tanya Chutkin made an order denying Donald Trump's claim of absolute presidential immunity. Donald Trump claimed that all of his conduct relating to January 6th and trying to overthrow the results of a free and fair election fall within the outer perimeter of official presidential conduct. He claimed therefore all of the crimes that he's been charged with in the indictment must be dismissed. Federal Judge Tanya Chuckin rejected those claims. She found based on the history, text, and structure of the Constitution, there is no absolute presidential immunity for former presidents in criminal cases. Donald Trump then filed an appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. By doing that, that's referred to as an interlocutory

appeal. What the law then essentially requires is that pending the appeal, the lower court proceedings get stayed. They get paused. You can't continue those proceedings. The lower court, the Washington DC federal criminal case, came to a pause. There was oral arguments before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. And finally, last week, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 50-plus page order agreed with the lower court, agreed with federal Judge Tanya Chutkin, and rejected Donald Trump's claim of absolute presidential immunity and when the DC Circuit Court of Appeals made that ruling, as part of their judgment, they gave Donald Trump until February 12th to seek a stay with the United States Supreme Court of the mandate of that

judgment by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, or otherwise the Washington DC Federal Criminal Case would proceed because they would receive the mandate by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. So Donald Trump on February 12th filed with the United States Supreme Court, kind of waited until that last day because he's not trying to rush these proceedings. And he filed an application for a stay

of the DC Circuit's mandate, pending the filing of a petition for a stay of the DC circuits mandate pending the filing of a petition for a writ of certiorari. Now by doing that, that still keeps the Washington DC federal criminal case being presided over by Judge Tanya Chutkin paused. As part of this application, Donald Trump made three arguments or he made an argument that has three prongs to it in order to have the application granted. This is the standard for a stay of a mandate that has to be demonstrated to the Supreme Court. You have to show that there is a likelihood that the Supreme Court would grant certiorari and certiorari is like the actual appeal itself. The next prong is that there is a chance or a likelihood that the Supreme Court would

reverse what the DC Circuit Court of Appeals did, that it's not a frivolous appeal is basically the standard if you want to go to the Supreme Court. Not necessarily that there's a high likelihood, but that there's a potential for a reversal. And then the third prong you have to show is irreparable harm that would be caused to a party who's seeking the stay if the stay is not granted. When I started podcasting, an online store was the furthest thing from my mind. Now I'm selling our legal AF mugs and legal AF t-shirts, and it's easy. So easy. All because I use Shopify. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business.

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will hear an appeal on this issue. And Donald Trump said, look, special counsel, Jack Smith previously said the Supreme Court should hear this on certiorari on an expedited basis. So, you know, we think that ultimately, you know, this is the type of case that you should hear the Supreme Court.

Then Donald Trump argued that he thinks that there's a probability of reversal of the DC circuit Court of Appeals decision and Trump goes into his frivolous interpretation of history and the Constitution that presidents should be treated like kings. And then Donald Trump says that the irreparable harm is that if he does is not given immunity, a case would proceed where it would otherwise, you know, be dismissed if he were to be entitled to that immunity. I'm just letting you know those were the three main arguments that Donald Trump made.

I think that it's ultimately going to hinge on prong number two of the stay application about whether or not there's more than a fair chance of, whether there's a fair chance of reversal here. And I think the Supreme Court will ultimately have to kind of dig into, you know, dig into that prong right there. It would take five votes in order for this stay application to be granted. For certiorari to be granted, it takes four votes of the justices for the Supreme Court to hear certiorari, but it takes five votes, one more vote for this application for a stay to be granted. But ultimately, if they grant a stay, my assumption would be that they would grant certiorari,

and if they don't grant a stay, it'll be interesting to see what they would do with certiorari which requires four justices, the stay requires five justices. And just if you're kind of complicated, this feels a little complicated with the procedure, when Trump went to the Supreme Court yesterday he did not file his appeal with the Supreme Court of the DC Circuit rejecting absolute immunity. All that's before the Supreme Court at this current moment is Trump's request for a stay with the Supreme Court. And he needs five justices to grant that stay, saying, the mandate of the DC Circuit and keep the Washington DC federal criminal case pause pending what we want to do next which is then file a petition for certiorari and that's just a kind of a big word of saying then petitioning you

on an appeal to hear the actual ruling by the DC circuit where they affirmed the lower court ruling and rejected absolute presidential immunity. In other words, for now, stay the proceeding, then we're gonna come back to you on the issue of absolute presidential immunity and will you or will you not then hear oral argument on that issue? The first

threshold question is whether or not there's going to be a stay or a pause that continues. So next up is special counsel Jack Smith's response to all of this and my expectation is is that special counsel Jack Smith is going to respond very very soon. It'll be interesting to see how special counsel, Jack Smith, is going to respond very, very soon. It'll be interesting to see how special counsel Jack Smith responds here because Jack Smith previously did seek expedited briefing before the United States Supreme Court, which the Supreme Court rejected. So, a special counsel, Jack Smith, now going to say, Supreme Court, this really isn't something that you should hear. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruling was so powerful that there's no need to stay, there's no need to stay the mandate.

Let's have it go back to the Washington DC, federal criminal proceeding. And then after this is all wrapped up, you should hear it, United States Supreme Court. Our special counsel, Jack Smith, gonna say, look, Supreme Court, we know Donald Trump's game. This is all about delay, delay, delay. And he's gonna seek to use you to delay these proceedings. You should be aware of that. So do not issue any type of stay of the mandate. Let's go back and have the DC criminal case in federal court play out.

And then after there's a judgment you can hear it. Or to special counsel Jack Smith say, look, we do think that you should hear this. This is where I think special counsel Jack Smith's, you know, you know, may do. We think that you should hear this Supreme Court, but you should hear this on an expedited basis. You need to set oral arguments in February or early March on the issue of absolute presidential immunity. Sure, if you want to stay the mandate for another 15, 20, 30 days, set oral argument though by early March and let's have a ruling on this issue by mid-March, late April, so that the trial against Donald Trump can actually take place over the summer. So we'll see what Special Counsel Jack Smith does, but the Supreme Court is asking Special Counsel Jack Smith to file at least his response by February 20th, which would be by next week.

That's next Tuesday right there. So there is some time, but Jackson is going to file that. He's going to file it forth with. We'll keep you posted as we learn more here. But Supreme Court making that move, requesting Jackson, it's respond by February 20th in response to Trump's application for a state. I've been myseless.

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