Donald Trump urges Supreme Court to pause January 6 criminal trial

livemint.com:

Donald Trump urged the Supreme Court to suspend the lower court ruling that he does not have presidential immunity from prosecution, CNN reported on Monday. The report stated that Trump called on the apex court to temporarily block a scathing and unanimous decision from the DC Circuit handed down last week, flatly rejecting his claims of immunity from election subversion charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith.

In their request, Trump's attorneys wrote, “Conducting a months-long criminal trial of President Trump at the height of election season will radically disrupt President Trump's ability to campaign against President Biden." Earlier this month, a federal appeals court ruled that the former US President is not immune from prosecution in the January 6 election subversion case, CNN reported. Trump is not immune from prosecution for alleged crimes he committed during his presidency to reverse the 2020 election results, a federal appeals court said on Tuesday.

The former president argued that the conduct special counsel Jack Smith charged him over was "part of his official duties as president and therefore shield him from criminal liability". "For this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant.

But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as President no longer protects him against this prosecution," the court stated. The ruling from the three-judge panel was unanimous.

The panel that issued the ruling comprised two judges--J Michelle Childs and Florence Pan, who were appointed by Joe Biden, and one, Karen LeCraft Henderson, who was appointed by George HW Bush, as reported by CNN. "It would be a striking paradox