Donald Trump’s attorneys file new motions to dismiss Georgia indictments
Trump is facing numerous organized crime indictments in Atlanta from Fulton County DA Fani Willis.
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Former President Donald Trump’s Georgia attorneys have filed four new motions in their battle against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ massive, historic organized crime-related indictments of the nation’s 45th chief executive.
The motions filed Monday morning in Fulton County Superior Court by attorney Steve Sadow include a motion to dismiss Willis’ charges based on the judicial notion of double jeopardy; a motion arguing Trump has “absolute immunity” from prosecution for actions taken while serving as president; and a motion to dismiss the charges based on istrative procedures.
“The indictment in this case charges President Trump for acts that lie at the heart of his official responsibilities as President,” one of the motions said. “The indictment is barred by presidential immunity and should be dismissed with prejudice.”
“President Trump has filed three persuasive, meritorious pretrial motions seeking a complete dismissal of the indictment and thus an end to the Fulton County District Attorney’s politically-based prosecution,” Sadow told Atlanta News First. “Also still pending is President Trump’s First Amendment as-applied challenge which seeks the same relief.”
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“Our country has a longstanding tradition of forceful political advocacy regarding widespread allegations of fraud and irregularities in a long list of Presidential elections throughout our history, therefore, President Trump lacked fair notice that his advocacy in the instance of the 2020 Presidential Election could be criminalized. President Trump, like all citizens, is entitled to have fair warning as to where the line is drawn which separates permissible activity from that which is allegedly criminal.”
“The indictment must be dismissed because President Trump was impeached, tried by the Senate, and acquitted on articles of impeachment that arise from the same alleged facts and course of conduct as the criminal indictment in this case.
“In January 2021, President Trump was impeached by the House on articles arising from the same course of conduct at issue in the indictment.
“The Constitution’s plain text, structural principles of separation of powers, our history and tradition, and principles of Double Jeopardy bar a federal or state prosecution from seeking to re-charge and re-try a President who has already been impeached and acquitted in a trial before the U.S. Senate.”
“From 1789 to 2023, no President ever faced criminal prosecution for acts committed while in office. That unbroken historic tradition of presidential immunity is rooted in the separation of powers and the text of the Constitution. In Nixon v. Fitzgerald, the Supreme Court held that a former President has “absolute presidential immunity from [civil] damages liability for acts within the ‘outer perimeter’ of his official responsibility.
“The indictment in this case charges President Trump for acts that lie at the heart of his official responsibilities as President. The indictment is barred by presidential immunity and should be dismissed with prejudice.”
On Tuesday, according to CNN, the DC U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments by attorneys for Trump and special counsel Jack Smith over the same two claims of immunity, a hearing Trump himself is set to attend.
Monday, also according to CNN, is the deadline for pre-trial motions to be filed in Fulton County’s racketeering case against Trump and the remaining co-defendants accused of helping the former president try to overturn the 2020′s election results in the state.
Trump is charged alongside others — including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows — with violating the state’s anti-racketeering law by scheming to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss.
Willis’ indictments, handed down in August 2023, accuses Trump and his allies of suggesting Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, could find enough votes for him to win the battleground state; harassing an election worker who faced false claims of fraud; and attempting to persuade Georgia lawmakers to ignore the will of voters and appoint a new slate of electors favorable to Trump.
During a Dec. 1, 2023, hearing in Fulton County Superior Court, Sadow said the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause would prevent Trump from being tried in Fulton County if he were to win the 2024 presidential election in November.
“I believe that under the Supremacy Clause and his duties as president of the United States, this trial would not take place at all until after he left his term of office,” Sadow said during the hearing.
The Supremacy Clause states the federal constitution and federal laws “shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby.”
On Dec. 22, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to immediately take up a plea by special counsel Jack Smith to rule on whether Trump can be prosecuted for his actions to overturn the 2020 election results.
The issue will now be decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which signaled it would act quickly to decide the case. Smith had cautioned that even a rapid appellate decision might not get to the Supreme Court in time for review and final word before the court’s traditional summer break.
Smith had pressed the Supreme Court to intervene over concerns that the legal fight over the issue could delay the start of Trump’s trial, now scheduled for March 4, beyond next year’s presidential election.
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