Special counsel Jack Smith has urged the US Supreme Court to let former president Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case proceed to trial without further delay.
Prosecutors were responding to a Trump team request from earlier in the week asking for a continued pause in the case as the court considers whether to take up the question of whether the former president is immune from prosecution for official acts in the White House.
Two lower courts have overwhelmingly rejected that position, prompting Mr Trump to ask the high court to intervene.
In urging the justices to permit the landmark prosecution case to move forward, Mr Smith’s team said there was “a national interest in seeing the crimes alleged in this case resolved promptly”.
Prosecutors urged the court to reject Mr Trump’s petition to hear the case, saying that two lower court opinions rejecting immunity for the former president “underscore how remote the possibility is that this Court will agree with his unprecedented legal position”.
But if the court does want to decide the matter, Mr Smith said, the justices should hear arguments in March and issue a final ruling by late June.
