Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has enlisted support from state attorneys general across 22 states in filing a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court that supported former President Donald Trump’s request to place a stay on his trial proceedings until the court can first rule on his claim of presidential immunity.
Currently, Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of Trump is paused and has been since December after a D.C. Circuit rejected President Trump’s immunity defense.
The former president has requested that the Supreme Court continue to hold the case until it can first determine if a trial would be constitutional before said trial occurs.
“After waiting 30 months to file these charges against President Trump, the United States wants us to believe that time is of the essence,” Marshall said.
“But Biden’s Department of Justice has given no reason for its delay in bringing these charges, or for its demand to rush this trial and short-circuit review of weighty constitutional issues. All that suggests that the Special Counsel wants to protect President Biden by convicting his challenger right before the election.”
“If that’s true, it would be deeply improper and a clear breach of Department of Justice rules.”
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The group of AGs argue that the Supreme Court should halt proceedings until it can review President Trump’s immunity claim, saying “Before a former President faces a federal criminal trial for the first time in our Nation’s history, this Court should decide whether such a trial is permitted by the Constitution.”
They emphasize that many Americans have “connected the dots between the rush to trial and the looming November 2024 election.”
The coalition did offer a possible solution that it says will help to counter that concern.
“A stay and a normal appellate timeline would go a long way to mitigate the perception of impropriety.”
Marshall’s brief was joined by attorneys general from Alaska, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
Austen Shipley is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News.
