What happens now that Trump has gone to the Supreme Court in his immunity fight

Donald Trump’s legal team has not been secretive about its strategy of trying to slow down his election subversion case for as long as possible. As soon as this week, the Supreme Court could signal its willingness or aversion to being drawn into this latest gambit.

The former president on Monday formally asked the justices to hit pause on a recent appeals court ruling that rejected his argument that he has presidential immunity for his actions in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 riot.

Here’s what the court could do next.

Request a response from prosecutors

The court is very likely to ask special counsel Jack Smith’s team for a response to Trump’s request for a pause in the recent appeals court ruling against him on the immunity matter.

A requested response would like come with a very short deadline.

If for some reason the justices decided not to respond to Trump's filing, it would still delay the proceedings in his case since the trial can't move forward until the immunity claim is resolved.

As of this moment, there is no trial date set, and everything is effectively on hold anyway.

Smith might be expected to urge the court to deny Trump's request, but one complicating factor is that in December in an earlier filing he told the justices they would need to decide the issue.

Decide to hear oral arguments and issue a ruling

The court could decide to treat Trump's request as a regular appeal, meaning it would schedule oral argument and issue a detailed ruling.