President-elect Donald Trump could soon have one less thing to worry about as he prepares his return to the White House.
In a filing on Wednesday, Trump’s legal team formally asked the Georgia Court of Appeals to toss the criminal charges against him in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' election subversion case, which has been on hold for several months. Trump and his attorney, Steve Sadow, argued the indictment should be dismissed because the court is without jurisdiction now that Trump is president-elect.
“A sitting president is completely immune from indictment or any criminal process, state or federal,” Sadow wrote in the five-page legal filing Wednesday. “The Constitution forbids “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.”
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The killing of the Georgia case against Trump would bring an end to the only surviving criminal case against him that has not already gone to trial, POLITICO reported. Sadow urged the Georgia court to drop the case before Inauguration Day when Trump is sworn in as the country’s 47th president.
“Accordingly, well before the inauguration of President Trump, this Court should inquire into its jurisdiction to continue to hear this appeal," the attorney wrote. "That inquiry should result in this Court deciding that both this Court and the 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 pleaded not guilty to multiple state charges of racketeering and other counts involving an alleged scheme to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia. The case had been stalled as Willis' appeal to stay on as prosecutor was being reviewed.