Carol Leonnig

They accelerate a case in this junction immediately.

in 2024 to hear an argument about whether or not Donald Trump should be disqualified and struck from the Colorado state ballot for reelection because he's been accused of being engaged in an insurrection.

And that insurrectionists can't run for president.

The Supreme Court accelerates on an emergency basis hearing that case.

But they decide at the same time not to rush on hearing the immunity case.

And this causes consternation inside the Department of Justice, inside Jack Smith, the special counsel's office, and inside the chambers of trial, Judge Tanya Chutkin, who's supposed to hear this case.

She and her chief judge have been planning security for the event.

But when they see the Supreme Court is slow walking a decision on immunity, she knows that there's going to have to be an appeal again of whatever decision they have.

And they stop worrying about having a trial at that moment.

They conclude that it's very unlikely and they stop having their security meetings.

The immunity decision, again, is really interesting by how it reverberates when it comes down in July of 2024, because inside Attorney General Merrick Garland's office, he is just shocked by the opinion and conveys to his aides, because he knows these justices personally, that they have to know that what they've written is wrong.

You know, we actually, at the Washington Post when I was there, there was a decent amount of polling we were doing, trying to talk to our readers and also just citizens across America about whether or not an indictment and a trial would impact their view of Trump if they were already Trump supporters.

And some of them said it would change things for them to see that evidence.

But remember, we're reporters who weren't rooting for a particular president.

We weren't trying to push for one thing or another.

But we know from our reporting how devastating the failure to get this before the

And the person who said that best, we learned about a private meeting of judges where a Republican appointee was meeting with others in the D.C.

bench where the case would have been heard.

And he's very, very well respected.

Judge John Bates served as the chief of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for many years.