Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) shared concern about delays in legal cases against former President Trump on Sunday, noting that a delay in the Supreme Court case concerning Trump’s claim of presidential immunity would be a “terrible decision.”
Delays in Trump’s legal cases have slimmed the odds that he will stand trial before the November election. Schiff said he sees Trump’s federal Jan. 6 case as the most important and emphasized that it is critical the Supreme Court move quickly on Trump’s claim that he cannot be prosecuted because he was working as the president.
“The Supreme Court moved with great speed when it came to ruling that Trump could appear on the ballot,” Schiff said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Dana Bash. “The question is, will it also move at great speed in rejecting this bogus immunity claim?”
“If it doesn’t, it’s making a deliberate decision essentially to push the trial past the election, and I think that would be a terrible decision … for the interest of justice,” he continued. “It’ll be a terrible decision in depriving American voters of the information they would learn during the course of that trial, but it would also just further discredit this partisan and reactionary court.”
Schiff added that Trump’s legal team has intentionally sought delays in each of his legal cases, with the intention of tossing them out if he gets elected president in November.
“There is a chance that he could evade justice by delaying justice,” Schiff said. “This is a tried-and-true tactic of Trump throughout his career, and I hope that the courts are aware of exactly what he’s doing and his incentive in trying to prolong this.”
The Supreme Court has scheduled arguments for the immunity case for late April, setting up a decision by the end of June or sooner. If the court rules that Trump is not immune and the case continues, the timeline leaves a slim window for a trial before November.
Trump’s first criminal trial on charges that he illegally covered up hush money payments in New York was delayed by 30 days on Friday after a request from prosecutors. The trial was initially scheduled to start next week.
The former president also faces criminal charges related to the 2020 election in Georgia — sidetracked by questions concerning a prosecutor’s conflicts of interest — and federal charges alleging he mishandled classified documents in Florida.