President-elect Donald Trump has filed a motion requesting that the Georgia Court of Appeals "confirm its lack of jurisdiction" to continue hearing his appeal and then direct the trial court to "immediately dismiss" altogether the Fulton County election interference case against him brought by Democrat DA Fani Willis.
According to the five-page notice of jurisdictional issue filed Wednesday, Trump is arguing the case's unconstitutionality, now that he is about to enter the White House again with the protection of presidential immunity.
"A sitting president is completely immune from indictment or any criminal process, state or federal," Trump's defense counsel wrote.
Trump - Notice of Lack of J... by WSB-TV
Accordingly, the U.S. Constitution prohibits "plac[ing] into the hands of a single prosecutor and grand jury the practical power to interfere with the ability of a popularly elected President to carry out his constitutional functions," as a 2000 memo out of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)'s Office of Legal Counsel upheld.
Trump's lead defense attorney Steve Sadow said in a statement shared with Townhall that "any ongoing criminal proceeding against a sitting president must be dismissed under the U.S. Constitution," noting that the two federal criminal cases were already dismissed by the DOJ in the aftermath of Trump's 2024 triumph.
Indeed, in full recognition of this presidential immunity, the DOJ filed motions to dismiss Trump's pair of federal prosecutions, which were subsequently granted by the respective courts, thereby formally bringing the federal lawfare campaign to an end.
Trump's filing urges the Georgia appeals court to "inquire into its jurisdiction" and dismiss the appeal—as well as the underlying indictment—"well before" Inauguration Day.
That inquiry should result in the appellate court deciding that both it and the lower trial court lack jurisdiction to "entertain any further criminal process against President Trump as the continued indictment and prosecution of President Trump by the State of Georgia are unconstitutional," Trump's filing says.
News reports said Trump was gearing up to ask the appeals court to dismiss the case outright on account of his president-elect status. Now, citing such presidential protections, Trump's petition seeks to toss out the entire case based on the longstanding DOJ policy that says a sitting president cannot be brought to trial on federal charges; this should apply to state prosecutions too, the Trump challenge asserts.
Trump's Fulton County case is currently under appeal while the court considers whether Willis should be disqualified from prosecuting him.
This month, the Georgia Court of Appeals was supposed to hear oral arguments about the slew of prosecutorial misconduct claims against Willis after a Fulton County judge's non-disqualification decision allowed her to remain in charge of the Trump case. However, without explanation, the appeals court abruptly canceled the December 5 hearing "until further order." It's still unclear why the proceeding was scrapped. The sudden cancelation left lawyers stumped on both sides.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
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