Special prosecutor Jack Smith has asked the US Supreme Court to answer whether former President Donald Trump has immunity from prosecution in the January 2020 storming of the Capitol by his supporters.
What is known about Trump's alleged immunity from prosecution
Journalists note that this is the first such case when the US Supreme Court will consider the possibility of holding a trial against the former president.
The emergency plea is an attempt by Smith to continue his election tampering trial, which is currently scheduled for early March.
Smith is asking the Supreme Court to take the rare step of bypassing a federal appeals court and quickly resolving a fundamental issue in the case against Trump. Smith's team asked the court to review a ruling by District Judge Tanya Chutkan that, as a former president, Trump is not immune from the election tampering charges brought in Washington, the report said.
The special counsel's team points to a similar manoeuvre used in the 1974 US Supreme Court case against former President Richard Nixon, in which justices rejected then-President Nixon's claims of presidential privilege in a subpoena dispute over Oval Office records.
What the prosecution demands in the case regarding Trump's involvement in the Capitol storming
In this case, the court decided quickly so that one of the Watergate-era cases could be heard as soon as possible.
In their appeal to the US Supreme Court, prosecutors and a special counsel wrote that "nothing is more important to our democracy" than holding the former president accountable if he breaks the law.
Urging the judges to take up the matter now, prosecutors argued that the high-profile nature of the case required a departure from the normal appeals process.
