Citing Hunter Biden pardon, Trump asks judge to dismiss his criminal hush money case
Donald Trump's criminal hush money case in New York "must be immediately dismissed" because the prosecution disrupts the president-elect's transition and "threatens the functioning of the federal government," Trump's attorneys argued in a court filing Tuesday.
In a lengthy filing that peppered legal arguments with political ones, Trump's lawyers invoked special counsel Jack Smith's recent motion to throw out both his federal cases against Trump based on a Justice Department policy prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting president, as well as President Joe Biden's pardon of his son Hunter Biden over the weekend.
"As President Biden put it yesterday, 'Enough is enough.' This case, which should never have been brought, must now be dismissed," wrote Trump attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, both of whom have been nominated by Trump for top Justice Department posts in the new administration.
The 72-page motion to dismiss follows Judge Juan Merchan's decision last week to indefinitely postpone Trump's sentencing following his May conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has suggested postponing the sentencing until after Trump completes his second term in 2029, "to balance competing constitutional interests" of Trump's conviction and his presidential duties.
Trump's attorneys argued in their filing that such a delay would still violate the Department of Justice policy prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting president.
"Thus, DANY's ridiculous suggestion that they could simply resume proceedings after President Trump leaves Office, more than a decade after they commenced their investigation in 2018, is not an option," the filing argued.
In addition to citing the Department of Justice policy, Trump's lawyers argued that the Presidential Transition Act, the Supremacy Clause, and presidential immunity require the case to be immediately dismissed.
Defense attorneys also reprised past arguments -- including what they called, without evidence, Judge Merchan's political motivations and defects they claimed arose during the trial -- alongside new arguments related to what they called Trump's "overwhelming national mandate" from the November election.
"And this case would never have been brought were it not for President Trump's political views, the transformative national movement established under his leadership, and the political threat that he poses to entrenched, corrupt politicians in Washington, D.C. and beyond," the filing said.
The Manhattan DA's office faces a Dec. 9 deadline to respond to Trump's motion to dismiss.
A federal judge threw out Trump’s election interference case last week Smith moved to the dismiss the case due to the Justice Department's standing policy prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting president. A federal appeals court also dropped Trump from the government’s ongoing appeal of Smith's classified documents case based on the same policy.
Trump's fourth criminal case, involving allegations of election interference in Fulton County, Georgia, is currently paused as Trump and his co-defendants appeal a decision involving the district attorney who brought the case.
