Donald Trump asks Georgia appeals court to throw out his election subversion case
President-elect Donald Trump asked the Georgia Court of Appeals on Wednesday to order the dismissal of his election racketeering case in that state, arguing the charges are unconstitutional as he prepares to return to the White House.
The five-page request is similar in nature to a more lengthy Trump filing made public Tuesday, which asked a Manhattan criminal court to throw out his convictions on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Judge Juan Merchan postponed sentencing in that case while he considers the request.
Trump and 18 others were charged in the Georgia case with playing separate roles in an alleged criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Four of Trump's co-defendants pleaded guilty in the case, although at least one of them – Kenneth Chesebro – is now seeking to invalidate his guilty plea.
Trump's lawyers asked the Georgia appeals court to order Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee to dismiss the charges against him because of his pending return to office.
"(W)ell before the inauguration of President Trump, this Court should inquire into its jurisdiction to continue to hear this appeal," Trump's lawyers wrote in the new filing. A court's "jurisdiction" refers to its power to oversee a case.
That inquiry should result in the court determining that neither it nor a Georgia trial court has the power to oversee any further criminal process against Trump, the lawyers wrote.
"President Trump respectfully submits that upon reaching that decision, this Court should dismiss his appeal ... with directions to the trial court to immediately dismiss the indictment against President Trump," according to the filing.
The appeals court had already canceled a hearing for Thursday where Trump's legal team had planned to argue for the removal of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis because of her romantic relationship with another prosecutor.
“President Trump has filed a motion requesting the Georgia Court of Appeals confirm its lack of jurisdiction to continue hearing his appeal now that he is President-Elect and will soon become the 47th President of the United States, and then direct the trial court to immediately dismiss the case," Trump lawyer Steven Sadow said in a statement. "The filing states that any ongoing criminal proceeding against a sitting president must be dismissed under the U.S. Constitution."
The action in the two state cases comes after federal judges dismissed two cases against Trump for allegedly unlawfully trying to steal the 2020 election and for allegedly mishandling national defense documents after leaving the White House.
Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith asked for the dismissals because of longstanding department policy barring the prosecution of sitting presidents.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump wants Georgia criminal case thrown out because of election win