Donald Trump’s Georgia election interference case should be dismissed because a sitting president is immune from criminal prosecution, the president-elect’s lawyer told a Georgia appellate court on Wednesday.
“A sitting president is completely immune from indictment or any criminal process, whether state or federal,” Trump’s lawyer Steve Sadow wrote in a five-page notice filed on Wednesday.
On the grounds that local prosecutors cannot interfere with a president’s official duties, Sadow petitioned the Georgia Court of Appeals to order the trial judge overseeing the case to dismiss the indictment.
“This is particularly true where, as here, there 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,” says Sadow.
Last year, Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment alleging efforts to overturn the results of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election. Four defendants later accepted plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.
Trump and his co-defendants attempted to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the case due to her relationship with a fellow prosecutor, putting the case on hold.
Judge Scott McAfee of Fulton County declined to disqualify Willis, but stayed the case while Trump and his co-defendants appealed the decision.
An oral argument before the Georgia Court of Appeals was originally scheduled for December 5 but was abruptly cancelled last month with no explanation.
Sadow asked the same appeals court to direct McAfee to dismiss Trump’s indictment on the grounds that the prosecution is unconstitutional.
In a similar filing on Tuesday, Trump asked for the immediate dismissal of his criminal hush money case in New York, citing its interference with the president-elect’s transition and its potential to “threaten the functioning of the federal government.”
Last week, a federal judge dismissed Trump’s federal election interference case after special counsel Jack Smith moved to dismiss it based on the Justice Department’s standing policy prohibiting prosecution of a sitting president.
A federal appeals court also dismissed Trump from the government’s ongoing appeal of Smith’s classified documents case, citing the same policy.
