Supreme Court Gives Donald Trump New Ammunition in Jack Smith Case

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to hear a major Capitol rioter case could present a new obstacle for Special Counsel Jack Smith's prosecution of former President Donald Trump in the federal election interference case.

The high court on Wednesday agreed to hear Fischer v. United States, Capitol rioter Joseph Fischer's appeal of the Justice Department's interpretation of "obstruction of an official proceeding"—the same felony charge that Trump is facing in his own criminal case. Trump is also facing one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and one count of conspiracy against rights. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Because Fischer could potentially upend hundreds of cases, including Trump's, legal experts said the SCOTUS announcement could give Trump's team further reason to delay the trial, which is scheduled to begin March 4, 2024.

Trump attorneys have already sought to push the trial date until after the 2024 election. Smith, who has insisted that the proceedings begin on time, filed his own petition with the Supreme Court on Tuesday, asking the justices to weigh in on a critical issue that would keep the case on track with the proposed trial timeline.

Former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade told Newsweek that while the decision to hear Fischer doesn't necessarily delay Trump's case, Smith may consider pushing the trial date until after the justices rule so that he knows whether the two counts of obstruction against Trump will be valid.

"Even though he has two other counts in the indictment, convictions on the obstruction counts could jeopardize the whole case on appeal if a court were later to find that the jury may have relied on evidence of the obstruction in reaching its decision," McQuade said. "Other options are to drop the obstruction counts now and proceed on the other two counts or take his chances with all four counts and move forward."

Legal commentator Randall Eliason agreed, saying that there's a "good chance" the Fischer case will push the March 4 trial date.

"Both the judge and the parties will likely want to see what the Supreme Court has to day before going to trial, or at the very least before instructing the jury," he told Newsweek.

In his Sunday newsletter, Eliason said that Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing Trump's federal election interference case, would probably not want to take the case to trial without hearing what the Supreme Court has to say about the charge that makes up half of Trump's indictment. He said Chutkan could try to start it mid-May, expecting the justices to decide on Fischer before she has to give jury instructions, but that a verdict would still come before the 2024 election if the trial doesn't begin until July.

But former federal prosecutor and elected state attorney Michael McAuliffe told Newsweek that Smith has framed the indictment against Trump so that even if the obstruction charges were struck down by a Supreme Court ruling, it would not stop the federal election case from moving forward.

"Each count can stand on its own even though they arise from the same set of factual allegations," McAuliffe said. "As such, the Supreme Court's prospective decision defining the scope of one subsection of the federal obstruction of an official proceeding statute will not derail the special counsel's prosecution of Donald Trump in the D.C. case."

He added that the factual allegations against Trump are much different than the ones in Fischer, so the Supreme Court could also issue a narrow decision that would absolve Fischer of the felony charge while allowing the two obstruction charges against Trump to stand.

For example, Trump is being accused of having participated in the fake elector scheme, which involved the alleged use of false documents. Even though the former president is facing the same obstruction charge as Fischer, who entered the Capitol building and allegedly had a physical encounter with a police officer, the alleged election interference is different.

McAuliffe said the only real threat to Trump's federal election case would be the presidential immunity claim, which Smith already brought to the Supreme Court in his petition last week. The justices have given Trump's team until December 20 to respond to Smith's petition before the court decides whether or not to take the case.