Former Top DOJ Lawyer Says ‘There Is No Chance That Trump Is Gonna Win’ His Supreme Court Case

Former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal said former President Donald Trump has “no chance” of winning his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court – but added an important caveat.

Trump is appealing a ruling by the Washington, D.C. circuit court, which slapped down the former president’s argument that he is immune from prosecution for acts he committed as president. During oral arguments before the appeals court last month, lawyers for Trump were pressed on their immunity claims. In one wild exchange, a judge asked a lawyer for Trump whether a president could order SEAL Team Six to assassinate a political rival.

After much back and forth, the attorney offered a “qualified” answer in the affirmative.

The circuit court ruled against Trump, who is appealing to the Supreme Court, which scheduled oral arguments next month. Trump is under indictment in four jurisdictions – two of which are in federal court. His lawyers have filed a slew of motions intended to delay the proceedings in all his cases. Trump will face President Joe Biden in November’s election, and if the former president wins, he would seek to halt any ongoing federal criminal proceedings against him.

Katyal appeared on Thursday’s episode of The ReidOut, where Joy Reid took issue with Judge Aileen Cannon. The Trump-appointed judge is presiding over the documents case in which Special Counsel Jack Smith alleges that Trump willfully retained classified material and obstructed the government’s efforts to retrieve it. The former president has pleaded not guilty.

Cannon has issued a series of favorable rulings to Trump dating back to last year, when two of her decisions were reversed by the conservative 11th circuit. On Thursday, Cannon held a lengthy hearing to determine that she will not grant Trump’s latest motion to toss the case.

“I can’t think of anyone who takes seriously these motions that are before this judge,” Reid said of Cannon. “It seems like entertaining them at all is a way to delay.”

“Federal judges can sometimes surprise,” Katyal replied. “And I think here, many people’s expectations for Judge Cannon were low, particularly because of her rulings last year appointing a special master, which was – to put it mildly – nuts and was rebuked by the very conservative court of appeals that oversees her court really quickly with some really with harsh language. So, here, so far, Judge Cannon has done the right thing, rejecting one of Trump’s motions, calling as you, said the statute ‘unconstitutionally vague,’ which is preposterous. But to me, the big concern is that Jack Smith today maybe won a battle, but he’s losing the war.”

Katyal added that Cannon and the Supreme Court are “kicking the can down the road.”

“The Supreme Court’s agreed, as you said, to hear Donald Trump’s ‘absolute immunity’ case on April 25th,” he stated. “There is no chance that Trump is gonna win and that the court is gonna say he has absolute immunity. But what the Supreme Court did there is delay his trial for [the] January 6th charges potentially to after the election. And the same thing I fear is happening with Judge Cannon.”

Watch above via MSNBC.