President-elect Donald Trump filed a motion asking the Georgia Court of Appeals to dismiss the RICO case led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, one of the last remaining cases against the former president as he returns to the Oval Office.
Trump’s legal team argues that his status as a sitting president, effective upon inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, renders him immune from any criminal prosecution under the U.S. Constitution.
Defense attorney Steve Sadow told the Washington Examiner the case should be dismissed “now that he is President-elect and will soon become the 47th President of the United States,” adding that two federal criminal cases, in which prosecutors were attempting to convict Trump of subverting the 2020 election and improperly handling classified documents, have now been dismissed by the Justice Department in light of his election win.
The 5-page filing draws heavily on the principle of presidential immunity, as detailed by a long-standing DOJ policy, which argues that criminal proceedings against a sitting president would undermine the separation of powers and violate the supremacy clause of the Constitution.
Trump’s legal team also cited concerns about local bias in the Georgia case, framing Willis’s prosecution as a politically motivated act that conflicts with federal constitutional protections.
“'[S]tates have no power … to retard, impede, burden, or in any manner control, the operations’ of the federal government,” the motion states, referencing key Supreme Court rulings such as McCulloch v. Maryland and Trump v. Vance.
Trump’s attorneys argue that state prosecutions are even more constitutionally precarious than the two federal cases that were dismissed last week, particularly when they originate from a “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.”
This latest motion calls on the Georgia appellate court to confirm its lack of jurisdiction over the case, arguing that any criminal proceedings against a sitting president must cease. It further requests that the trial court be directed to dismiss the indictment against Trump immediately.
The case arises from Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, charges Willis brought under the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Trump and 18 other co-defendants charged alongside him have consistently denied the allegations, framing the case as part of a broader pattern of political persecution. Four defendants have accepted plea deals in exchange for their truthful testimony.
Willis’s case has been in limbo ever since the state appeals court scheduled oral arguments to consider Trump’s claims that her relationship with her former special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, amounted to an appearance of impropriety that should result in her removal as the lead prosecutor on the case.
However, the appeals court canceled those planned arguments last month, which were previously slated to commence on Dec. 5, raising even more questions about how this indictment would proceed. One possibility is that the remaining defendants could be tried separately while Trump serves his second term in office.
But even defendants who have agreed to plead guilty in exchange for dismissal of their charges are now raising questions about Willis’s case.
Kenneth Chesebro, an ex-lawyer to Trump who concocted a plan to submit alternative electors following Trump’s 2020 election loss, asked a judge to invalidate his plea deal in a court document filed Wednesday.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
It is unclear if and when Willis will submit a filing to the appeals court over her intentions about the sprawling indictment.
The Washington Examiner contacted a representative for Willis’s office.
