CNN anchor Jim Acosta asked Friday if the Supreme Court justices understand that the risk of causing a political “mess” in the country increases the longer they wait to rule on former President Trump’s immunity case.
The Supreme Court has yet to issue a decision on whether Trump is immune from prosecution in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s election interference case against him.
“Do [the justices] recognize that the longer they wait, the more of a mess potentially they could make politically for the country if we don’t see a January 6 case go to trial before the November election, for example?” Acosta said on his show. “Do these kinds of practical, real-world aspects of all of this, do they dawn on the justices of the court?”
FORMER AG ERIC HOLDER SOUNDS ALARM ON POSSIBLE ‘DANGEROUS’ SCOTUS RULING ON TRUMP IMMUNITY
“Maybe [it] dawns on some but not others,” Acosta added.
The Supreme Court released a number of opinions Friday, including upholding a federal gun ban for those under domestic violence restraining orders, but did not issue a ruling on Trump’s immunity claim.
Legal experts are divided on the case.
Former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday he was worried about the Supreme Court issuing a “dangerous” ruling.
“Anything less than a decision by the Supreme Court that says, ‘A president should be held to the laws, just like any other American citizen should be,’ anything other than that is absurd,” Holder told MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that ruling against presidential immunity would cause similar prosecutions to “recur and become increasingly common, ushering in destructive cycles of recrimination.”
“Criminal prosecution, with its greater stigma and more severe penalties, imposes a far greater ‘personal vulnerability’ on the President than any civil penalty,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “The threat of future criminal prosecution by a politically opposed Administration will overshadow every future President’s official acts – especially the most politically controversial decisions.”
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.