During an appearance on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki” on Sunday, Neal Katyal, the former Acting U.S. Solicitor General, expressed deep concern about the delay in the federal election interference case involving former President Donald Trump, attributing it to claims of presidential immunity.
Using Psaki’s term from earlier in the program, Katyal said in the interview that he was officially in the freakout stage. He continued by saying that they were now in a situation where justice denied is justice postponed. As he noted, he could not think of a more compelling case for a prompt decision than the claim that, prior to the presidential election, American voters should have known whether or not one of the presidential contenders was an insurrectionist and a convicted criminal.
Katyal was the solicitor general under the Obama administration. Trump has managed to postpone the trial by relying on his immunity claims, which are now being reviewed by an appeals court. The federal election interference lawsuit concerning Trump’s attempts to rescind the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election was initially set to begin next month.
Judge Tanya Chutkan of the US District Court, who is supervising the election interference case, put it on hold on Friday until the appeals court’s ruling. It is not yet known when the lawsuit will be tried or if it will take place before the 2024 presidential election.
With a commanding lead in the Republican primary for president, Trump is expected to represent his party in the general election in the following year.