Donald Trump Faces Potentially Pivotal Monday

Former President Donald Trump is expected to decide on Monday if he is going to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court regarding his presidential immunity claim in his Washington, D.C., election interference case.

A federal appeals court ruled earlier this week that Trump is not immune from criminal prosecution, allowing special counsel Jack Smith to prosecute Trump on the four criminal charges related to his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. In August 2023, Trump was indicted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) concerning his alleged role in the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. The former president has pled not guilty and has said the case against him is politically motivated.

Trump, the GOP frontrunner in the 2024 presidential election, has already said he will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, which means the trial, which has already been delayed from its original March 4, 2024, date, could be put back even further pending the Court's decision.

The appeals court is giving Trump until February 12 to file an emergency stay request with the Supreme Court, which would again put the case on hold. Trump would then need to file a petition to the Court asking it to reconsider the appeals court's decision.

In an interview on CNN on Friday, legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elie Honig discussed the different options Trump may take, emphasizing the importance Monday's decision could hold for the case.

"This is a procedural moment. It could be the whole ball game," Honig said.

Newsweek has reached out to Trump's spokesperson via email for comment.

"Option A, if Donald Trump does nothing, then the case on Monday will go back down to the district court, the trial court, which can resume its proceedings and presumably would set a trial date for a few months out. I think that's very unlikely. Option B is Donald Trump can go up and ask the Supreme Court either to take the case or to keep everything paused," Honig said.

He continued: "If the Supreme Court does not take the case, then we are very likely to have a trial somewhere around the summer. But if the Supreme Court does take this case that's going to push this whole schedule back to the point where I think it becomes probably unlikely we will see a trial before the election at all."

His comments come after legal expert, Michael Conway, pointed out Trump's legal strategy to delay the trial remains.

Trump has long been thought to want to delay the start of the trial until after the 2024 election, as there is a possibility he could order the case to be dropped if he wins reelection.

In an opinion piece on CNN titled, "Trump's immunity defeat isn't the setback it seems to be," Conway, a former attorney, warned that the decision is not a "clear-cut victory" as Trump's strategy to delay the trial until after the 2024 election is still likely.

"However, it would be wrong to mistake the decision as a clear-cut victory for efforts to try Trump before Election Day. In fact, the timing of the ruling only increases the likelihood that Trump's strategy of delaying the outcome of this criminal trial beyond November will succeed," Conway wrote.

He continued: "The law permits Trump's lawyers to stall up to 90 days before filing a petition asking the Supreme Court to overturn his loss in the court of appeals. If Trump's lawyers take advantage of the full 90 days, that petition would be filed in mid-May or later."