ATLANTA — Georgia prosecutors are calling on a state appeals court to reject President-elect Donald Trump‘s bid to dismiss the election interference case against him, saying his arguments are “underbaked” and “should be ignored.”
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office is pushing forward with its case against Trump and more than a dozen of his allies which began in August 2023. Attorneys for Trump argue that the case should be dropped in light of Trump’s recent election win and the immunity from prosecution that’s often afforded to sitting presidents.
Prosecutors disagree with that position.
Trump “does not make a specific request based on reasoned argument but expresses his preference that this Court independently perform extensive and novel legal analysis without guidance from the parties in order to arrive at a general result: the dismissal of all charges against him,” Willis’ office said in a filing Wednesday with the Georgia Court of Appeals that described the president-elect’s request as “procedurally and legally inadequate.”
Trump’s attorneys disputed those characterizations in a subsequent filing Wednesday, saying Trump’s request “was intended to alert this Court to a jurisdictional issue and his legal position on how and when the issue should be addressed.”
“Contrary to the State’s response, it did not ‘demand’ this Court do anything,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday’s court filings.
In a filing earlier this month, Trump’s lawyers said the appeals court should dismiss the 2020 election interference charges against him because of “the unconstitutionality of his continued indictment and prosecution by the State of Georgia” now that “he is President-Elect and will soon become the 47th President of the United States.”
They contended a “sitting president is completely immune from indictment or any criminal process, state or federal,” and that the appeals court should direct the lower court to dismiss the case “well before the inauguration of President Trump” on Jan. 20.
The district attorney’s office noted Trump is not yet president, and said that “While the courts’ understanding of presidential immunity continues to evolve, ‘president-elect immunity’ obviously does not exist.”
The U.S. Constitution “places all the authority of the chief executive in the incumbent president, while a president-elect holds none,” the filing by chief senior assistant district attorney Donald Wakeford said.
It also pushed back on Trump’s assertion that presidents are immune from state prosecution, because the claim relies mainly on a Justice Department memo, and not caselaw.
“Similarly, Appellant notes that the states may not ‘impede’ or ‘interfere’ with a sitting president’s ability to perform their duties but neglects to explain how this principle practically applies to the present case,” the filing said, referring to Trump’s pending appeal of an order allowing Willis to remain on the case as prosecutor despite conflict of interest allegations.
The prosecution’s filing also said Trump “does not specify or articulate how the appeal — or indeed, any other aspect of this case — will constitutionally impede or interfere with his duties once he assumes office.”
“In other words, Appellant has not done the work but would very much like for this Court to do so,” the filing said.
Wakeford also pushed back on what he described as a “familiar tactic” of Trump’s legal team — their contention that the case is “politically motivated.”
Trump’s “prosecution in fact arose from his own actions as alleged in (his) indictment,” Wakeford wrote.
The case is “the result of two separate grand juries and years of investigation, and any suggestion it is motivated by ‘possible local prejudice’ remains utterly unfounded,” he added.
It’s unclear when the appeals court will rule on Trump’s effort to get the case against him dismissed.
The court had been scheduled to hear arguments on Willis’ disqualification earlier this month, but abruptly canceled the hearing without explanation.
Trump and 18-co-defendants were indicted on racketeering charges in the case in August of last year, alleging they conspired to illegally overturn the 2020 election results in the state. Some of the defendants have since pleaded guilty. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
Trump has also pleaded not guilty to state charges in New York, where he was convicted in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The judge in that case recently rejected Trump’s bid to overturn his conviction on presidential immunity grounds.
Trump has another motion to dismiss that’s pending in the New York hush money case.
Charlie Gile reported from Atlanta, Dareh Gregorian reported from New York.
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