Sen. Richard J. Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, criticized the Supreme Court for delaying the decision to take up former President Donald Trump’s immunity claim because it will delay the beginning of his other criminal cases.
“Their delay in considering this critical issue, this timely issue, is going to delay the resolution of these, by months at least,” Mr. Durbin said Sunday on CNN. “I think that that is a disappointment. I think the court has acted quickly in the past when they realized that the presidential timetable was at risk. And I’m really concerned with what they have done.”
The high court announced last week that it would take up the former president’s claim that he’s immune from federal charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. They set the oral arguments for April 22.
The trial was originally set to begin on March 4.
When asked if he thought the Department of Justice should’ve brought the case sooner, he said he didn’t “know all the circumstances.”
“When you prepare a case of this gravity and this magnitude, you want to make certain that you’re doing the right thing and you have all the evidence that’s necessary. I can’t second-guess the Department of Justice on that,” he said. “But it’s certainly an issue that should be resolved before the election. And this decision by the court makes it more difficult.”
He used the example of the Supreme Court allowing the certification of the Florida votes for then-GOP candidate George W. Bush in 2000 as one case where the court moved quickly.
“They had a matter of days to resolve it. And they knew what was at stake,” he said. “When we’re considering a presidential election, the most important decision by the American people in any given four-year period of time, I wish they’d acted a little sooner.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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