In late 2023, around Christmastime, former special counsel Jack Smith went to the U.S. Supreme Court asking the justices to take the typically rare step of leapfrogging the appellate court and swiftly ruling on Donald Trump's "absolute immunity" claims, imploring the high court to treat the Jan. 6 prosecution of the then-presidential candidate like Richard Nixon's Watergate .

SCOTUS was unmoved in that instance, kicking the can down the road for half a year and ever closer to the 2024 election before ruling in Trump's favor — with various impacts on both of his since-tossed federal cases and the New York hush-money prosecution that nonetheless ended with 34 felony convictions.

But on Monday, the conservative majority jumped at the chance to potentially upend a 90-year-old precedent, gran

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