Conservative attorney George Conway this weekend challenged CNN’s Jake Tapper’s claim that it was a “big win” for former President Trump when the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to take up his criminal immunity case Friday.
“The U.S. Supreme Court handing Donald Trump something of a win today, rejecting the special counsel’s request to urgently decide the issue of presidential immunity,” Tapper said on air.
Conway, “not particularly a fan of Trump,” said he wanted to “issue a correction” to Tapper’s statement that the decision was a win. Tapper said it is more of a disagreement, to which Conway agreed.
“I think it’s not a big deal because I don’t think it’s going to affect the schedule that much, and I think it actually shows the likely, I think it shows the weakness of Donald Trump’s immunity claim,” Conway said, adding that he is the only person who has written a Supreme Court brief that won immunity for a president.
The Supreme Court declined Friday to take up a case to decide whether Trump can be prosecuted for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump has claimed he should receive presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts.
Special counsel Jack Smith skipped over the appeals court and brought the issue directly before the Supreme Court in an effort to keep the trial on a schedule.
The justices agreed to expedite the decision, but ultimately sided with the former president, who argued the case should be considered first by the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals in a Jan. 9 hearing.