by Dave Williams | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – President-elect Donald Trump’s legal team asked the state Court of Appeals Wednesday to dismiss an indictment charging him with trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
In a five-page filing, three of Trump’s lawyers argued that since the U.S. Constitution already prohibits indicting and prosecuting a sitting president, the same provision should apply to a president-elect. The Republican former president was reelected to a second non-consecutive term in the White House last month and will take the oath of office on Jan. 20.
“Well before the inauguration of President Trump, this Court should inquire into its jurisdiction to continue to hear this appeal,” the lawyers 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’s lawyers went on to criticize Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, who won a grand jury indictment in August of last year charging Trump and 18 co-defendants with racketeering for allegedly participating in a conspiracy to reverse Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 victory over Trump in Georgia.
Biden became the first Democrat to carry the Peach State since 1992. But Trump bounced back to win Georgia’s 16 electoral votes last month, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris by more than 115,000 votes.
“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,” the lawyers wrote.
Two other federal indictments against Trump have been dismissed since last month’s election, while Trump’s lawyers also are asking a New York judge to throw out his conviction earlier this year on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush-money scheme.
