Former White House attorney Ty Cobb said former President Donald Trump’s argument, asking the Supreme Court to pause a ruling rejecting his immunity claim, is “pretty weak.”
An appeals court last week ruled that Trump was not immune from criminal prosecution in special counsel Jack Smith’s January 6 case, in which the former president faces charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the case.
In a court filing on Monday, Trump’s team asked the Supreme Court to pause the lower court’s ruling, which would prevent the criminal proceedings from going forward ahead of an expected formal appeal to the Supreme Court in that case.
Cobb, who served under Trump from 2017 to 2018, made his assessment of Trump’s argument in an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday.
He called the appeal “pretty weak” and said the argument was “not at all” persuasive.
“It’s repetitive of their briefs below,” he said. “The arguments that they presented were not only soundly rejected, but eviscerated both in oral argument and in the opinion. I don’t think the Supreme Court is going to find those arguments compelling in any way.”
Cobb added the Supreme Court has a number of options for responding, but that he believes they will not take up the case, which would let the lower court’s ruling stand.
“I think this case could be over this week,” he added.
Attorneys for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Trump’s lawyers have argued that a president cannot be criminally charged for actions committed in office as part of his duties, an argument two lower courts and many legal experts have rejected.
Trump’s lawyer went as far as saying that a president could order the assassination of a political rival and not be criminally charged if Congress was okay with it, as in if they didn’t impeach and convict the president first.
