President-elect Donald Trump’s legal team requested that the state of Georgia dismiss Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ indictment against him in a Wednesday filing.
Willis charged Trump, along with 18 others, in August 2023 with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act by allegedly attempting to overturn the state’s 2020 election results. Trump’s legal team argued continuing the case is unconstitutional and “lacks jurisdiction” as a sitting president is “completely immune” from any state or federal indictment, lead counsel Steven Sadow wrote in the filing.
“President Donald J. Trump hereby notifies this Court of a following jurisdictional issue: the unconstitutionality of his continued indictment and prosecution by the State of Georgia in the case giving rise to this appeal, now that he is President-elect and will soon be the 47th President of the United States, and its direct impact on this Court’s jurisdiction,” Sadow wrote.
JUST IN: Donald Trump seeks to throw out th criminal case in Georgia, saying his election as president requires dismissal. https://t.co/1KTP7Aw1rZ pic.twitter.com/VkxeJUH20s
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 4, 2024
The filing cited the U.S. Constitution, which states that a sitting president is not “liable to arrest, imprisonment or detention” and the Department of Justice’s dismissal of two cases brought against Trump by special counsel Jack Smith in order to withhold the agency’s precedent of not indicting a president. Smith charged Trump in two separate cases in 2023 over the alleged mishandling of classified documents and for allegedly engaging in a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results.
Trump’s legal team also argued that a state indicting a sitting president also violates the supremacy clause of the Constitution, which says that state judges and prosecutors do not have the power to interfere with a president’s duties.
“Accordingly, well before the inauguration of President Trump, this Court should inquire into this jurisdiction to continue to hear this appeal,” the filing concludes. “That inquiry should result in this Court deciding that both this Court and the trial court lack jurisdiction to even entertain any further criminal process against President Trump as the continued indictment and prosecution of President Trump by the State of Georgia are unconstitutional. President Trump respectfully submits that upon reaching that decision, this Court should dismiss his appeal for lack of jurisdiction with directions to the trial court to immediately dismiss the indictment against President Trump.”
Willis’ case against Trump had been put on hold as the Georgia Court of Appeals is overseeing a decision on whether to disqualify her over an alleged undisclosed relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade. The appeals court canceled oral arguments scheduled for Thursday, further delaying the case.
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