'Preposterous': Expert says Supreme Court won't bother hearing Trump's immunity claim
Former President Donald Trump's criminal immunity claim in the federal election conspiracy case is so weak that it's increasingly unlikely the Supreme Court would even review a decision by the appellate court rejecting it, argued former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann on MSNBC Friday.
This comes after widespread controversy from Trump's lawyer John Sauer telling the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that Trump couldn't be prosecuted even if he ordered a military assassination of an opponent.
"What is your anticipation of what they will do or what do you think they should do, timing-wise?" asked anchor Chris Hayes.
"So I think this is all about timing," said Weissmann, who previously worked on the Robert Mueller investigation of Russia. "I think everyone discusses the merits of this. There are no merits to this. It's a preposterous notion. I've never been as convinced that the Supreme Court may take a pass on this, as when I heard the oral argument, because it was so frivolous that as much as you think the Supreme Court might want to weigh in on this to make it absolutely clear, if you listen to the argument, it was childish."
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"Everything, though, for Donald Trump, is he could be like, yeah, you know what, I'm losing the battle, and winning the war, because the normal time period for an appeal is he gets to ask the full D.C. Circuit within 45 days, he can ask them to re-hear the case," Weissmann continued. "Then he can also try and seek — that will go to the Supreme Court, that's another 90 days. The D.C. Circuit has the power to shorten that up by basically saying, you know what, we are going to give you five days, then we are sending it back to Judge Chutkan."
Ultimately, he added, "If you don't get a stay from the Supreme Court, she goes forward."
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Andrew Weissmann calls Trump's immunity claim "preposterous" www.youtube.com