Donald Trump's Supreme Court Appeal Is Already Dead: Kirschner

Any possible appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court by former President Donald Trump regarding a judge's ruling that he is not immune from prosecution is unlikely to succeed, legal analyst Glenn Kirschner said.

Trump was dealt a blow over the weekend in a federal case accusing him of attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. He pleaded not guilty to the charges, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and he moved to have the charges in the four-count indictment, filed in August, dismissed based on presidential immunity and constitutional grounds.

But in a 48-page opinion on Friday, U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan ruled that former presidents will have "no special conditions on their federal criminal liability" and Trump does not have "absolute immunity" from criminal prosecution for his actions while in the White House. That means Trump may be subject to federal investigation, indictment, prosecution, conviction and punishment for any criminal acts while in office.

"Whatever immunities a sitting President may enjoy, the United States has only one Chief Executive at a time, and that position does not confer a lifelong 'get-out-of-jail-free' pass," Chutkan wrote, adding that the "defendant's four-year service as Commander in Chief did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens."

Attorneys for Trump are expected to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, potentially delaying Trump's scheduled March 4, 2024, trial.

Reacting to the news on his podcast Justice Matters, Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor, said the court of appeals would likely affirm Chutkan's decision, then after further legal action, Trump may be left with no other option but to take the case to the Supreme Court.

Kirschner, a Trump critic who is also a legal analyst for MSNBC, said that while that could delay the trial in theory, "It's pretty likely that the Supreme Court won't touch this with a 10-foot pole.

"There's no viable legal issue for the Supreme Court to take up. There is no constitutional support anywhere for the notion that double jeopardy prevents this prosecution for absolute presidential immunity even exists. It doesn't. It never has and it never should."

He added the court would not review the case because of a "sense of self preservation," speculating that Trump may attack the Supreme Court if he gets into power again.

"The Supreme Court loves its supreme status, even over and above the chief executive, over and above the president of the United States," he said.

Trump's office previously spoke out against Chutkan's decision in a statement provided to Newsweek.

"Radical Democrats, under the direction of Crooked Joe Biden, continue to try and destroy bedrock constitutional principles and set dangerous precedents that would cripple future presidential administrations and our country as a whole, in their desperate effort to interfere in the 2024 Presidential Election," Trump spokesman Steven Cheung wrote.