(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump’s lawyers are opposing efforts by Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office to speed up the fight over whether he’s immune from federal prosecution for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

The former president is appealing after a Washington federal judge rejected his bid for absolute immunity. Prosecutors are pushing to fast-track it on two fronts — asking the US Supreme Court to take up the issue right away, or at least have an intermediate appeals court adopt an expedited schedule. 

On Wednesday, Trump’s team urged the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit to rebuff what it criticized as the “rushed schedule” proposed by the government. Trump’s response to Smith’s request for the Supreme Court to expedite its consideration of their application to skip the DC Circuit and take the fight directly to the justices is due Dec. 20.

“The manifest public interest lies in the court’s careful and deliberate consideration of these momentous issues with the utmost care and diligence,” Trump’s lawyers wrote on Wednesday. They argued that a faster timeline would undermine Trump’s rights and public confidence in the judicial system.

Gag Order

Trump’s lawyers acknowledged that the DC Circuit recently had put another fight in the same case on an expedited track, concerning US District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s partial gag order restricting what Trump could say publicly about key players in the case. They argued the gag order issue involved immediate harm to Trump’s free speech rights, while the government’s desire to stick to a March 4 trial date didn’t present the same “compelling reason.”

The defense accused Smith of trying to keep the March trial for “partisan concerns” as Trump runs for another term in the White House.

If the appeals court agrees to put the case on a speedy schedule, Trump’s lawyers asked the judges to at least slow down some of the deadlines. They noted that the government’s proposal would mean Trump’s brief is due shortly after Christmas, requiring the defense team to work through the holidays.

Quoting Dr. Seuss, they wrote: “It is as if the Special Counsel ‘growled, with his Grinch fingers nervously drumming, ‘I must find some way to keep Christmas from coming. … But how?’”

The government’s response to Trump’s opposition in the DC Circuit is due Thursday.

Ruling in Carroll Case

Also on Wednesday, the federal appeals court in New York ruled against Trump’s presidential immunity argument in a civil suit by the writer E. Jean Carroll claiming he defamed her in 2019. A three-judge panel of the court found that Trump waited too long — three years — to raise the immunity issue, upholding a ruling by the trial judge rejecting his claim. 

In August the lower-court judge, Lewis Kaplan, ruled that Trump’s claim was frivolous and an attempt to delay the case.

In a separate suit by Carroll, a jury awarded her $5 million in May after finding that Trump sexually abused her in the 1990s.

The criminal case on appeal is US v. Trump, 23-3228, US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

--With assistance from Bob Van Voris.

(Adds immunity ruling in Carroll case in last section.)

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