reporting to special counsel jack smith will square off in front of a three-judge pam of the court of appeals for the d.c. circuit. at issue whether trump has immunity for conduct he undertook as president or cannot otherwise face prosecution because it would represent double jeopardy. that s the legal issue. but what s most important here is the timing. trial court judge has determined she can t move forward until this issue is resolved. she entered an order on december 13 saying trump s appeal automatically stays any further proceedings that would otherwise move the case toward trial. but that stay could be lifted after the outcome of tuesday s argument. for sure, the losing side is going to appeal to the supreme court after perhaps first asking for the first court of the appellate court to hear the matter on bond. the losing party has 90 days to ask for supreme court review. as i detailed before, smith is eager to get trump tried before the election. trump, on the other ha
wrinkle. the court of appeals accepted an am cows or friend of the court brief from a group called american oversight. lawyers from the firm of arnold andporter argue the court of appeals lacks jurisdiction and this time to hear the appeal, they cite a 1989 supreme court case in which justice scalia wrote for a unanimous court. it this argument swas the panel next week, it could immediately return the case to trial before the judge. and trump would face a jury of his peers before he faces the electorate. joining me now is elie honig, senior legal analyst, former prosecutor, author of untouchable. nice to see you again. big picture, how many trials might trump realistically face before the election? that is the big question. i m going to give you an ironclad precise answer right now.
reporting to special counsel jack smith will square off in front of a three-judge pam of the court of appeals for the d.c. circuit. at issue whether trump has immunity for conduct he undertook as president or cannot otherwise face prosecution because it would represent double jeopardy. that s the legal issue. but what s most important here is the timing. trial court judge has determined she can t move forward until this issue is resolved. she entered an order on december 13 saying trump s appeal automatically stays any further proceedings that would otherwise move the case toward trial. but that stay could be lifted after the outcome of tuesday s argument. for sure, the losing side is going to appeal to the supreme court after perhaps first asking for the first court of the appellate court to hear the matter on bond. the losing party has 90 days to ask for supreme court review. as i detailed before, smith is
eager to get trump tried before the election. trump, on the other hand, wants to run out the clock. he hopes to win the presidency and use his power to end his own prosecution. so how likely that trump is tried before the election? if in the unlikely scenario he wins his immunity or double jeopardy argument this, prosecution will end and jack smith would fight that outcome. what if trump loses in the court of appeals and that decision is promptly announced. it means he can wait three months, the month of may, before even asking the supreme court to hear his appeal. by then the republican nomination fight will likely be long over and it would receive bliss take the supreme court weeks if not months to resolve the matter. only then could the case be returned to the judge for trial making it highly unlikely that trump will be tried before election day. but it s all rather uncertain. now there s a relatively new