Trump asks to dismiss Georgia election interference case over presidential immunity
Donald Trump's Georgia election interference case should be dismissed because a sitting president is immune from criminal prosecution, the president-elect's lawyer told a Georgia appeals court on Wednesday.
"A sitting president is completely immune from indictment or any criminal process, state or federal," Trump's attorney Steve Sadow wrote in a five-page notice filed on Wednesday.
Sadow asked the Georgia Court of Appeals to direct the trial judge overseeing the case to dismiss the indictment on the grounds that local prosecutors are prohibited from interfering with a president's official duties.
"This is particularly true where, as here, there is compelling evidence of local bias and political prejudice against the President by the local prosecutor, who not only answers to a tiny segment of the American electorate but is acting in clear opposition to the will of the citizens of Georgia as reflected by the recent election results," Sadow argued.
Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty last year to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia. Four defendants subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.
The case has been on pause after Trump and his co-defendants launched an effort to have Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis disqualified from the case over her relationship with a fellow prosecutor. Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee declined to disqualify Willis, but the case has been paused as Trump and his co-defendants appeal the decision.
An oral argument before the Georgia Court of Appeals was initially scheduled for Dec. 5, but was unexpectedly canceled last month without explanation.
Sadow asked the same appeals court to direct McAfee to dismiss the indictment against Trump on the grounds that the prosecution is unconstitutional.
In a similar filing, Trump on Tuesday asked that his criminal hush money case in New York be immediately dismissed because the prosecution disrupts the president-elect's transition and "threatens the functioning of the federal government."
A federal judge last week threw out Trump’s federal election interference case after special counsel Jack 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.
