Supreme Court gives Trump prosecutor a week to respond to delay request in election case

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday told Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith to respond to a request by Donald Trump to delay implementing an appeals court ruling that found he does not have presidential immunity in his federal election interference criminal case.

Roberts gave Smith a full week, until Feb. 20, to file an answer to the former president's request, suggesting that the court might take its time reviewing broader questions related to the issue of immunity.

Later Tuesday, a group of former officials in Republican presidential administrations from Richard Nixon to Trump in a filing with the Supreme Court said Trump has failed to make "two of the mandatory showings required for a delay of" the appeals court ruling.

The former officials in that filing also said that "rejection of absolute immunity in this case is essential to protecting" the Constitution's "design of the Presidency itself."

"This Court should deny a stay in this case because Mr. Trump's claim of such a boundless immunity is wrong," the filing said.

Trump on Monday asked the high court to temporarily pause last week's decision by a three-judge federal appeals court panel in Washington, D.C., which rejected his argument that he could not be prosecuted in the case because he was president at the time he committed the acts that Smith charges were crimes.

Trump is accused in a four-count indictment in D.C. federal district court of crimes related to his challenge of the 2020 election results, and his efforts to block Congress from declaring President Joe Biden the victor in that contest.

He has pleaded not guilty in the case.

Trump, in his filing Monday, asked the Supreme Court to delay the appeals court's mandate.

If that mandate