The Supreme Court taking up former President Donald Trump's presidential immunity appeal is a "bigger win" than getting a mere stay on his trial, according to lawyer Jordan Sekulow, the executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice, on Newsmax.
"A stay is usually pretty temporary," Sekulow told Thursday's "Wake Up America." "They've decided to take the case as a whole, and they also wrote the question, presented very specifically, 'Can you be held criminally for official acts as president.'"
But the key victory for Trump, Sekulow said, is the Supreme Court's ultimate decision will mean that it would be a "miscarriage of justice" for the Department of Justice to start a trial against Trump before a decision is reached.
"You will likely not have an opinion, I'm betting, until the last week of June," Sekulow said. "The court usually is done by them with issuing opinions, at the latest, the first week of July, so that means no trial could be concluded. It would just be the government and the Department of Justice, which has a policy against anything that could be seen as interfering in the election."
The Supreme Court announced Wednesday it will rule on Trump's immunity from prosecution on charges involving alleged efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
He added the ACLJ is "ready to go on this" and "can't wait to file on this as well."
Sekulow also commented on a Wednesday ruling from Cook County, Illinois, Circuit Judge Tracie Porter, disqualifying Trump from the state's March 19 primary and the Nov. 5 general election ballot based on the anti-insurrection clause of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment.
"The issue here is the judge there is playing politics," Sekulow said. "She is a Democrat.
"She's got elections coming up, and I think she just wanted to get on this game. So she wanted to make this ruling, which overrode the Illinois State Elections board, which is no conservative board at all."
Porter also would not stay the decision, such as was done in Colorado, pending the Supreme Court's ruling on keeping Trump on the ballot, forcing the former president's team to continue to fight this in her court, according to Sekulow.
He added the decision to keep Trump off the Illinois ballot is "totally insane," and the judge is "wasting the resources of the Illinois state judiciary."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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