Attorneys for President-elect Donald Trump asked the Georgia Court of Appeals on Wednesday to dismiss him from the stalled but ongoing effort to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the high-profile racketeering (RICO) prosecution she initiated in Atlanta.
Dismissing the appeal aims to completely dismiss the underlying RICO indictment, far from giving up the fight.
Filled as an interlocutory appeal, the four-page notice of a jurisdictional issue cites a relevant precedent, requests the state’s second-highest court to “enquire into its own jurisdiction,” and concludes that jurisdiction is lacking.
The motion begins, “President Donald J. Trump hereby notifies this Court of the 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 soon to become the 47th President of the United States, and its direct impact on this Court’s jurisdiction.”
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Trump’s attorney, Steve Sadow, paints a picture of an executive branch head who should be completely free of the criminal charges that are still pending in Fulton County, Georgia.
“A sitting president is completely immune from indictment or any criminal process, state or federal,” the motion reads, before citing U.S. Department of Justice guidance prohibiting federal law enforcement agencies from targeting a sitting president.
The motion goes on to state that special counsel Jack Smith only recently filed the final documents required to dismiss Trump’s two federal cases in Washington, D.C., and the Southern District of Florida.
Sadow argues that the federal government’s commendable action bears a similarity to Peach State prosecutors’ demonstration of fairness.
Trump’s defense attorney cites the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution and “the principles of federalism and comity” to argue that state prosecutors cannot “proceed against the sitting in any way.”
The overarching case is currently on hold.
August 14, 2023 saw the issuance of the sprawling, 98-page, 41-count criminal indictment. The document accused Trump and 18 others of numerous election-related crimes, including an alleged conspiracy to overturn the state’s 2020 election results.
By late 2023, four codefendants had accepted plea deals, while six others had turned down similar offers that would have required guilty pleas.
At the same time, by late January of this year, nine codefendants had banded together in a semi-successful attempt to have Willis and her entire office removed from the case.
The effort to disqualify Willis gained momentum, effectively ending district court proceedings in the case. The state’s court of appeals now faces the dismissal case; however, the appellate court mysteriously halted further proceedings “until further notice” in late November, following Trump’s election as the nation’s 47th president.
Regardless of the number of defendants remaining after the completion of pretrial motions and ancillary appeals, Willis has stated her intention to continue trying the case.
The state’s aggressive stance appeared to indicate that the prosecutor was not about to wash her hands of Trump just because he had regained the White House.
Wednesday’s motion may serve as a preemptive strike against Willis or her office’s future efforts in the case.
“[T]here 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,” according to the motion.
According to Sadow, Willis has proven herself to be a political foe of Trump, using her anti-Trump stance to boost her own electoral credentials at the expense of “our constitutional structure.”
The defence asserts that we should no longer put up with this.
“Accordingly, well before the inauguration of President Trump, this Court should enquire into its jurisdiction to continue to hear this appeal,” the motion’s title states.
“This inquiry should lead to this Court determining that both this Court and the trial court lack jurisdiction to hear any further criminal proceedings against President Trump, as the State of Georgia’s ongoing indictment and prosecution of President Trump is unconstitutional.”
Once this Court reaches that decision, President Trump respectfully submits that it should dismiss his appeal for lack of jurisdiction, instructing the trial court to immediately dismiss the indictment against him.
