WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Former President Donald Trump is in the spotlight this week as the Supreme Court will now decide whether to give him presidential immunity from charges accusing him of plotting to overturn the election.
He is also expected in court Friday in Fort Pierce for a scheduling conference in the classified documents case.
Trump's federal election trial in Washington, D.C., has now been put on hold amid a Supreme Court decision to hear arguments regarding whether Trump should be given presidential immunity from charges accusing him of trying to overturn 2020 election results.
"It means that a trial in the Trump case, pertaining to Jan. 6, may not occur until after the November election," Alain Sanders, political science professor of emeritus from St. Peters University, said.
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Trump seeks 'presidential immunity' in classified documents case
Sanders told WPTV this could ultimately end up affecting the other cases against Trump too, including the classified documents case currently scheduled to go to trial in Fort Pierce in late May.
In that case, Trump and two co-defendants, the Mar-a-Lago maintenance manager and Trump's valet, are all accused of mishandling classified documents at his Palm Beach estate.
"Since the Supreme Court is not going to decide presidential immunity until at least April, May or June, Judge [Aileen] Cannon may decide maybe she needs to postpone the documents trial as well," Sanders said.
All of this comes as Trump is set to appear in court before Cannon on Friday in Fort Pierce for a scheduling conference in the documents case.
"There is a similar motion arguing that the president is immune in the documents case as well," Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a constitutional law professor at Stetson Law, told WPTV.
Trump's legal team has filed that motion in the Florida case, however, Cannon has not yet ruled on it.
"That document case has been going rather slowly," Torres-Spelliscy said. "I think the next thing to focus on will be in Manhattan. We've got the Manhattan DA and the Stormy Daniels case coming up in March."
"Bottom line is, everything keeps getting delayed and delayed and the American public has the right to know whether Trump is guilty or not guilty of the crimes that he has been charged with," Sanders said.