The Supreme Court says that itll decide the biggest question of all about donald trump and the presidency thats tonight on newsnight good evening. Im abby philip in new york, april 22. Thats a date that you should circle on your calendar. It may go down as a defining day in the history of the republic. Its the de, that the Supreme Court says that it will hear oral arguments on the question hanging over the 2024 election, like a guillotine is donald trump immune from prosecution on charges that he interfered with the 2020 election . Is he immune from anything related to that violent january 6 insurrection that he encouraged . The high court revealed its plan and to dry paragraphs, the justices set out a clear timeline. There one that collides directly with his other trials and with the election that is very much underway. March 19, for example, is the due date for briefs. March 19 is also the day when voters in arizona in florida, in illinois, and kansas, and ohio all head to the polls. Thats when 350 delegates are on the line in the race for the republican nomination. Now the Courtroom Clash does give trump a chance to forever make an imprint on how this country operates. That is, if the court agrees with his lawyers that president s are above the law, just because their president its an argument that every court so far has soundly rejected. It also makes it possible, maybe even likely the trump can get exactly what he wanted. A delay in his trials. But blue the 2024 election, so far, the special counsels office, on the other side of the case isnt commenting. And as we come on the air and neither is the Biden White House nor president bidens campaign now, trump himself. Well, heres what he said. Just last month the opening of a pandoras box and thats a very, very sad thing thats happened with this whole situation when they talk about threat to democracy. Thats your real threat to democracy. And i feel that as a president , you have to have immunity. Ive read a lot of legal reports lately in scholarly reports that are saying you really have to have a president of this country has to have immunity, or theyre not going to be able to function in office now, there are at least six burning questions that we have about what this decision actually means for trumps legal issues and also for that calendar. Here to help us with the answers is cnn senior legal analyst elie honig. Elie, weve got 99 problems the country, but six questions for use. Lets start with question number one. Who decides when this trial ultimately happened . Yeah, be so trial dates are always the result of a tug of war. Typically, prosecutors asked for earlier, sooner trial dates, and typically defendants tried to delay donald trump did not invent this tactic, but the decision is up to the trial judge in this case, judge tanya chutkan. Trial judges have broad discretion over when to schedule a trial. What she says is going to go shes the one who has the decision ultimately. Is it possible that trump still can get to a trial before the november elections . So this is the big question that i think is on peoples minds. Couple of key dates. Of course, the election, november 5, weve got the Republican Convention july 15, but now, when could this opinion come down from the Supreme Court . It seems like the most realistic timing for that would be sometime in early june. But remember though, when this trial was put on pause, they were still two months or so out from the trial. So the judge would have to build in a couple of months for trial prep for motions for discovery. So were looking realistically, if the judge judge wants to try to get it in at a start date sometime around august. Thats going to take us through august through september and probably into october. Were getting really close to election. Yeah. And thats going to become important for one of our later questions the next one here would the election itself, election day, ultimately have some impact . On when the trial . So theres no formal rules saying you cannot have a trial on election day or near election day, but it would be problematic in two ways. One, i think doj and a judge might worry that the outcome of a trial this close to the 11th day could sway the election and vice versa. If im prosecuting this case, id be a little worried about a juror saying, well, maybe i think hes guilty, but im not comfortable with finding someone guilty on november 1 or something when you have an election a few days later. So it gets into really tricky ground at that point. Yeah. And what about the doj . Theyve got their own rules about elections. Yes. You will hear even have a verdict. So you will hear much about this fabled 60 day rule at doj, but it does not strictly apply here. What the rule says is at doj, you should not announce big indictments. You should not take overt steps, execute a Search Warrant served subpoenas within 60 days of an election, but trials are different. Doj does not control trial dates as we just showed, its a judge. And so trials are technically not part of the 60 day rule. You could argue theyre within the same spirit though in a quick follow up, if donald trump is elected and is potentially going to trial, what doj allow the trial to go forward if hes the incoming president , short answer is no. Doj has a longstanding policy that they will not indict or try a sitting president so question number five, weve got potential for delay is here can to trials happen at the same time, we give you a very simple answer here. No, you cannot have two trials at the same time because the has the right to be physically present at his trials. He obviously cant be in two places at once. Its a core constitutional right. We will not have two trials. Said thats not right now. Loud and clear for anybody at home. We wanted to see. Okay. That leads us right to question number six. He has a right to be president. Yes. Does he have to be present . But generally speaking, yes. With some very, very narrow exceptions, if for example, someone is being physically disruptive, they can be removed from the courtroom. He could probably ask for permission to ms certain days, you remember in the civil cases though, Donald Trumps sort of came in when he was there some days he was not there, others generally speaking, at a criminal trial of the defendant has to be and will be present every day. Itll physically take him right off the campaign trail, but he knows how to turn the courtroom into the campaign. It is unusual to not have a defendant if theyre facing a criminal charge yes, i former never seen a Defendant Area and a lot of other ways as well. Elie honig. Thank you very much and lets discuss this now and debate this question with two esteemed lawyers. Youve got trump lawyer Tim Parlatore and Jeffrey Toobin also is with us. So tim, i want to start with you you think the justices in the right thing and agreeing to hear this case. If so, why i do, i think that for an issue of this magnitude that impacts the president it doesnt just impact what happens to donald trump. Theyre gonna be Setting Precedent to really define the left and right limits of president ial immunity. Thats going to play but every president that comes thereafter, and thats something that Justice Ginsburg wrote a scathing opinion back in late 90s, saying these type of things must be decided by the Supreme Court, not by the circuit and so i think that even if they were to uphold what the circuit did, its something that really needs to come from the Supreme Court, not from The Dc Circuit. All right. Jeffrey. So do you buy that that they have to weigh in just for the finality of it. All. I dont think its a terrible idea to have the Supreme Court address an issue of this magnitude. I understand that point. My complaint about what the Supreme Court has done is about the procedure and the timing. This issue has been before them. They could have skipped The Dc Circuit altogether jack smith asked them to skip The Dc Circuit to move this case along. They declined to do that, and they have gone at a very leisurely pace in addressing the the appeal. Now from the, from The Dc Circuit and now have set the argument for the week of april 22. All of that is a gift to donald trump. So the substance i dont have a problem with the procedure which is often more important than the substance has been very much slanted in trumps favor. I want to get back to that, but tim, just to get your take you can doesnt mean you understand the world of trump attorneys pretty well. You were one yourself. If you were representing him in a case like this and you walked into the Supreme Court on april 22. Whats the argument on the merits . The argument on the merits and has been narrowed by the Supreme Court from what they wanted to argue it really is that the actions that you take that are part of your duties as president , that immunity should attach to them. And that immunity should survive the end of a president lets see oh, thats, thats really how the Supreme Court is his narrative. So the whole impeachment judgment rule thats out the window. They didnt want to hear that. They really just want to know about the official acts, whether that immunity survives the end of the presidency so you really got to focus. But the question, the way the Supreme Court defined this question was also in a way favorable to trump because it raised the possibility that the Supreme Court will establish a standard for this this issue and then send the issue back to The Dc Circuit to decide whether the facts of this case apply, which would certainly push this case after the election. So everything the court has done procedurally has been in trumps favor, even if ultimately they wind up ruling kansas them on the marriage. Jeffrey, though, what tim is saying also is that trump could argue that the things that he is accused of doing related to january 6 ultimately were official acts. I mean, do you think he can actually make that case . I dont think i dont think he can make that case. And it has been a bedrock principle of american law, including trumps own lawyers made the argument in his last impeachment that will of course this can all be dealt with in a criminal case later. Gerald ford pardoned Richard Nixon because everyone assumed he could be prosecuted for what he had done as press president. This is an extremely novel and frankly dangerous argument that trump is making. And thats why The Dc Circuit in a bipartisan way, basically gave at the back of their hand, i expect the Supreme Court will do something similar, but the delay is the big win for trump here, tim, your thoughts . I mean, we keep talking about the delay helping trump. The reality is what the Supreme Court has done here is what a normal schedule for any other case would be you know, they have not taken jack smiths invitation to put the election as part of their calculus. Theyre going on a normal schedule so i mean the idea that they they should have taken it instead of the circuit thats just silly. I mean, thats something that yes, they should have taken it if they wanted to push it before the election, but if they want to follow a normal procedure then they allow the record to be developed in the circuit. Then they take it, and then they decided on a normal scan. He cool. That been to whether this has been set up to go back down for another hearing. I think it is because one of the things that the circuit did, which is interesting in how they werent disorder. The circuit said the indictment alleges that this was all done in his capacity as a candidate, as opposed to the president and so really, if the Supreme Court course, its going to focus on what he did as president. What theyre likely going to do is not send it back to the circuit. Theyre going to send it back to the District Court for pretrial evidentiary hearing to see what parts came within Candidate Trump and what parts came within President Trump . And if you have your way it will be all decided under the presidency of malia obama that the truth is, that that sounds like an extremely extended timeline and tim delay is important here because justice delayed very well could mean justice denied in this case. I mean, if trump is liable for his actions, if he doesnt get this decided until year two of his second term as president probably would even go there at that point. Then it gets to the election the election is really, its an additional factor that we dont normally have i mean, lets remember criminal cases in the federal District Court, especially with this amount of discovery. They dont go to trial ever really within two years. So the idea that were even talking about a trial date at this stage is solely because jack smiths trying to push up before the election. The fact that were talking about trying to skip the circuit to go straight to the Supreme Court again, is only because of the election. And this delay. Justice delayed is justice denied is something thats very unique to this situation because theyre afraid of pushing it out past the election if he wins, is that a set aside the election entirely and just focus on the facts, evidence, and the law and trying to get it right then you would take the time to get it, right . Well, Supreme Court often deals lives in the realworld in during the 2000 race, bush v. Gore, they were deciding cases day by day because because they recognize the importance of it, they came back over the summer in 1974 to decide the nixon tapes case because they recognize the importance of speed in that situation. They could relive in the realworld if they wanted to. But theres a majority on that core that doesnt want to recognize the how meaningful the calendar is here. All right. Tim parlatore and jeffrey to those two cases were very different. Those two cases were very different. Well, talking about the election while its pending, and were talking about after hes already been reelected of whether youre going to keep him in office, and that the nixon case is entirely different timing. All right. Well, to attend, we dont even know which is going to win the election and tim and jeffrey, really, this is a really interesting conversation one im sure we will revisit. Thank you both very much. And up next, harry enten is here to break down the calendar and the likelihood that American Voters will actually know as weve been discussing, what is trumps fate before this next election . Us also breaking tonight. A judge in illinois, the coming next the next latest to kick trump off the ballot over the insurrectionist ban. 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