good evening, i m abby philip in new york. tonight, the special counsel bets big on the supreme court. how big of a bet? well, every single check and balance on all presidents might be at stake. jack smith is wagering that the justices will side with him. he is wagering that the high court will see the wisdom in answering this question sooner rather than later, is donald trump immune from prosecution? now, the special counsel writes like he s running out of time, and in a way, he is. the normal appeals process would give no guarantee that the high court considers the immunity question before next november. now that is, i don t have to remind you, when america chooses its next president. how the court rules may reshape democracy as we know it. the justices have never said yes or no that a president can be criminally prosecuted for crimes they perpetrated while president, a ruling that the constitution does not offer a get out of jail free card would put trump in immediate elec
everything you did is not presidential, so to speak. to saying now the supreme court will look at how a case normally goes through to get to the supreme court. this is significant, ian. it is. i think jack smith s being very smart trying to make this move as fast as possible. you don t want a situation where like on october 20th the supreme court throws out a conviction because of some procedural rule that no one anticipated. ordinarily i advocate for the supreme court to do as little as possible. you want narrow that s not because i don t like the supreme court. that s good judging. you don t want judges to overreach, but in this case i think we want the court to give us as much guidance as possible as to how this trial is going to be run. it s an unprecedented case. right. it s a case where the stakes are enormous. the voters need to know if this man is a convicted felon when it comes time for the election and so i am hoping that the supreme court is going to tell t