Special Counsel Jack Smith used former President Donald Trump's arguments against him in a new Supreme Court filing, MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin explained on Wednesday.
Smith was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in the Department of Justice's (DOJ) investigation into the actions of Trump surrounding the Capitol riot—an attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden's 2020 election win—on January 6, 2021. The siege on the Capitol followed months of Trump making claims that the election was stolen via widespread voter fraud; however, there is no evidence to back up the former president's allegations. Trump has been indicted on four federal felony counts relating to the siege on the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., including conspiracy to defraud the United States. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and claims the case is politically motivated as he is the GOP frontrunner in the 2024 presidential race.
In an effort to throw out the case, Trump's team has tried to claim presidential immunity, arguing that the former president cannot be tried for actions he may have committed while he was still in office. Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over this case, dismissed Trump's presidential immunity claims, which was held up by a federal appeals court. The former president has since appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
On Monday, Trump asked the Supreme Court to pause case proceedings while he appeals the lower court's decision on presidential immunity. Two days later, Smith filed his own brief, urging the Supreme Court to reject Trump's request so as not to delay the trial any further than it already has been.
The DOJ told Newsweek via email on Thursday, "We'll decline to comment beyond the court filing." Newsweek also reached out to Trump's campaign via email for comment.
Appearing on MSNBC's The Reid Out, Rubin detailed how Smith used Trump's arguments against him to make his case to the Supreme Court.
"You know, Joy, one of the things that strikes me in reading this is the way in which Jack Smith and his team so rapidly but also effectively subverted and turned on their heads some of the arguments that former President Trump and his lawyers were making," Rubin told host Joy Reid. "One of the things that echoes throughout the briefs that former President Trump has submitted is a president is special. He should be treated specially and differently. And Jack Smith sort of doesn't disagree with that. He just takes a different tack at it."
Rubin says that Smith argued that, "Yes, presidents are special. We endow them with all sorts of constitutional powers, including the power to take care that his powers are faithfully executed and to respect and venerate the Constitution, more than anyone else. And what you are alleged to have done here Mr. Former President is of, and this is the quote, 'unparalleled gravity that necessitates trying this case as quickly as possible, not the delay that you are begging for.'"
The former president also made it a point in his brief to talk about his candidacy for president in the upcoming election.
"He talked about the fact that he had an interest in a stay because one of the groups that would be irreparably harmed from a trial would be his voters, his supporters who would be deprived of their First Amendment rights to associate with him and hear his political messages," Rubin said.
She continued: "And again, Jack Smith and his team turned that on their head. They say the public's interest in a speedy trial here is greater than any interest that Trump could have in delaying it, particularly given that what he is accused of doing here is subverting the democratic will of tens of millions of voters.
"In other words, you claim to stand for the interests of a certain segment of voters. But the accusations at the heart of this case are about your willingness to disenfranchise the tens of millions of people who never voted for you in the first instance."
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