Trump Takes Action to Dismiss Georgia Election Case
Trump seeks to dismiss election fraud case in Georgia, citing presidential immunity. Thirteen individuals, including Mr. Trump, are accused of conspiring to tamper with the results of the state’s 2020 election.
His attorneys, however, asserted that “no president has ever been prosecuted criminally for actions committed while in office.”
Mr. Trump’s attorneys wrote in the filing on Monday. “That unbroken historical tradition of presidential immunity is rooted in the separation of powers and the text of the Constitution.”
A federal appeals court hearing in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, will hear arguments over the same presidential immunity claims that are the subject of Mr. Trump’s effort to dismiss a distinct election interference case brought by special counsel Jack Smith.
Mr. Trump is expected to be present at the hearing before the three-judge panel.
The former president has consistently invoked presidential immunity as a defense to evade civil and criminal proceedings lodged against him for years. However, US District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan “convincingly and comprehensively” rejected this defense in December, according to law professor Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond who spoke to the BBC.
Ms. Chutkan opined that former presidents do not “obtain a perpetual “get-out-of-jail-free” pass” from the presidency.
Attorneys for Mr. Trump further contended that the Georgia criminal case ought to be dismissed based on double jeopardy, citing the fact that he had been tried and acquitted in the US Senate on comparable charges subsequent to the Capitol disturbance in 2021.
In a final motion, Mr. Trump’s attorneys contended that the case infringes upon his rights to due process and the First Amendment.
“President Trump did not have fair warning that his alleged conduct, pure political speech and expressive conduct challenging an election, could be criminalized,” according to the filing.
A Deep Dive into the Charges
Mr. Trump and eighteen others were charged in a 41-count indictment by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis of Georgia last year. The indictment purports to pertain to alleged efforts to revoke his 2020 election defeat in the state.
One of the thirteen criminal charges brought against Mr. Trump alleged infringement of the Racketeering, Influenced, and Corrupt Organizations Act of Georgia (Rico).
In addition to the aforementioned charges, he is implicated in conspiracies to solicit a public officer to violate an oath, impersonate a public officer, forge, make false statements, and write and file fraudulent documents.
A trial date of August 2024, as proposed by prosecutors, would cause considerable disruption to the overall campaign of Mr. Trump should he be selected as the Republican presidential nominee.
In the case, four co-accused of Mr. Trump have entered guilty pleas.
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