‘Bush v. Gore 2.0’: Fears Grow Supreme Court Will Bail Donald Trump Out

WASHINGTON ― The Supreme Court’s decision this week to hear arguments over Donald Trump’s claims for immunity from prosecution is fanning fears that the former president won’t go to trial before the November presidential election and could escape accountability for his efforts to overturn his loss in the last one.

The 6-3 conservative high court could have simply declined Trump’s request for a hearing, letting stand a prior unanimous D.C. appeals court decision that flatly rejected his argument that everything he did related to Jan. 6, 2021 he did as an “official act” as president.

Instead, the justices agreed to take up the case and set oral arguments for April 22 ― a two-month delay that will prevent Trump’s trial from starting in May, as had been previously scheduled. How long the court takes to reach a verdict after that hearing and whether it decides it needs to hear more information from the appeals court could delay the start of Trump’s trial even further.

The delays in the case are starting to add up, unnerving Trump critics who fear that if his federal prosecutions stretch past November’s election and he manages to win another White House term, he could order the Department of Justice to put them on hold or simply dismiss them.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) called the case “a ginormous self-test” for the Supreme Court, invoking its controversial Bush v. Gore decision that ensured George W. Bush’s victory in the 2000 presidential election over then-Vice President Al Gore.

“If they quickly rule 9-0 that there is not the kind of presidential immunity that Trump asserts, then it will be all to the good,” Whitehouse, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told HuffPost. “If not, then it stands to be Bush v