Government

Special Counsel Gets Extra Time To Handle Fallout From SCOTUS's Bullshit Immunity Ruling

It's fine. Looks like he's probably not getting fired in January after all.

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WASHINGTON – JUNE 9: Special Counsel Jack Smith makes a stateme

(Photo by Tom Brenner for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

We’ll have to wait a little longer to see how thoroughly SCOTUS boned Trump’s election interference case, as the government is still working out how to reconcile the Court’s July 1 ruling with actual law as we’ve all understood it since the founding of the republic.

Six weeks ago, Chief Justice Roberts and his fellow conservatives decreed that presidents are blessed with a magical, perpetual immunity that allows them to send SEAL Team Six to assassinate their rivals. And to make darn sure that it took, they threw in a ban on using evidence of official acts to prosecute crimes committed in a personal capacity. Then they sat on the decision for a month, before finally lobbing it back to the DC Circuit last week. The appellate court immediately fished out that stinker and dropped it in Judge Chutkan’s punchbowl. At which point the trial judge, who’s been dealing with Trump’s obnoxious lawyers for a year now, demanded that the parties confer and tell her in a week how they intend to move forward.

But last night the special counsel’s office requested a three-week delay so it can consult with Main Justice on a path forward.

“The Government continues to assess the new precedent set forth last month in the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States, including through consultation with other Department of Justice components,” the special counsel wrote, citing 28 CFR § 600.7, which requires him to “consult with appropriate offices within the Department for guidance with respect to established practices, policies and procedures of the Department.”

“Although those consultations are well underway, the Government has not finalized its position on the most appropriate schedule for the parties to brief issues related to the decision,” the prosecutor continued, requesting until August 30 to file the joint status report.

Trump, who has done everything he could to delay this case until after the election, gladly obliged. (He’s a little busy chewing the furniture at the moment.)

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And Judge Chutkan put out a minute order this afternoon granting the three-week extension on the status report and rescheduling the conference for September 5.

For some reason, there seems to be very little urgency left to get this case done. Almost like everyone involved was operating under the assumption that it would come to an end in January, and now they’re … not.

US v. Trump [District Docket via Court Listener]

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos substack and podcast.

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