Just days before a federal appeals court rejected Donald Trump’s claim of presidential immunity in the federal election interference case, MSNBC contributor Neal Katyal expressed concern that Trump’s appeal would delay the start of the trial until after the November election, The Hill reported.
Katyal, the former Solicitor General of the United States under Barack Obama, appeared on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki” last Sunday where he said he was “at the freakout stage,” over the delays in the election interference case.
Arguing that “justice delayed is justice denied,” Katyal said the American people deserve a speedy trial so they could “know before the election” if the Republican nominee was “a felon and an insurrectionist.”
Trump is not charged with insurrection.
Katyal expressed frustration at the delay from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, saying that if the appellate court did not rule soon, he was afraid the trial could be delayed until after June. He said if the appellate court rules against Trump and Trump appeals to the Supreme Court, it could “take months” before the trial begins.
The Court of Appeals released its decision on Tuesday, ruling that Trump was not entitled to broad immunity in the federal case, CBS News reported.
In its opinion, the 3-judge panel sided with US District Court Judge Tanya Chutkin’s December decision in which she ruled that presidential immunity did not amount to a “lifelong get-out-of-jail-free pass.”
The appellate court said that as far as the election interference case was concerned, Trump was a private citizen and had “all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant.” The “executive immunity” that he may have enjoyed as president “no longer protects him against this prosecution,” the panel said.
The appeals court gave Trump until February 12 to appeal its decision to the Supreme Court.
