Supreme Court Won't Side With Donald Trump for Key Reason: Ex-Prosecutor

Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner said Friday that the Supreme Court will not help delay Donald Trump's criminal trial in Washington D.C. because they don't want the former president back in power.

Trump was indicted in August by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on four counts, including conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, as part of special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot. Trump has maintained his innocence in the case and accused prosecutors of targeting him for political purposes as he is the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

On January 6, Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., where Congress was certifying the results of Joe Biden's 2020 election win. The riot followed unsubstantiated claims made by the former president that the election was stolen from him via widespread voter fraud.

Trump's lawyers have attempted to dismiss, or at least delay, the January 6 trial, claiming in early October that Trump has presidential immunity from prosecution. Subsequently, Trump's legal team asked the judge overseeing the case, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, to delay all proceedings pending a resolution of their motion to dismiss the case on immunity grounds.

However, Chutkan ruled on Friday that Trump does not have immunity from legal peril just because he served as president. Chutkan wrote in the opinion, "Defendant's four-year service as Commander in Chief did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens."

Kirschner, a staunch Trump critic who is also legal analyst for MSNBC, weighed in Friday if the highest court will step in and try to delay the January 6 case.

"The J6 case is coming. The Supreme Court could try to temporarily pause that case. I don't think it will," Kirschner said on The Stephanie Miller Show on Friday. "I've said all along that the Supreme Court justices so covet their power and their status that I don't think they're going to facilitate Donald Trump, an aspiring dictator, to get back into power because he would not only terminate the Constitution, he would marginalize the Supreme Court."

Newsweek reached out to Trump's legal team via email and online form and Kirschner via online form for comment.

Trump's trial is set for March 4, 2024, despite the former president's request for an April 2026 start date. Meanwhile, the trial's start date falls one day before Super Tuesday in the GOP primary. However, Chutkan made it clear that the former president would not get special treatment because of his campaign obligations.

Kirschner also predicted on Friday a timeline for the January 6 case.

"So, I do think the J6 case will begin March 4th. I do think the jury will be voting guilty, will be convicting Trump probably late April, early May. He will be sentenced 60 to 90 days after the jury finds him guilty and he'll be ordered into prison, I believe," he told Miller.