The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to take up former President Donald Trump’s immunity appeal, to decide whether he can be tried on criminal charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election, the New York Times reported. In a one-page unsigned order, the justices fast-tracked the case for oral argument in April and ordered a hold for the D.C. Circuit’s unanimous ruling that rejected Trump’s claims of immunity from prosecution. Trump contends that he cannot be prosecuted for his official acts as president and that a former president cannot be prosecuted unless he has first been impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate.
In the meantime, proceedings in his trial court remain frozen. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan had originally set a trial date of Mar. 4, 2024, for Trump’s case. But in early February, she threw that date out and indicated that she would set a new one “if and when” Trump’s immunity claims are resolved. In settling on the week of April 22, the Supreme Court picked the last three scheduled argument sessions of its current term and seemed to indicate that its decision would follow before the end of its current term, in late June. By some rough calculations, the trial could be delayed until late September or October, plunging the proceedings into the heart of the election.