Former President Donald Trump’s legal team, led by Steve Sadow and Jennifer Little, is moving to have the prosecutions case dismissed in Georgia.
Trump’s legal team filed a supplemental brief supporting the dismissal of two counts against him in the Georgia election interference case.
The brief argues that the state of Georgia cannot prosecute someone for committing a crime in a federal judiciary — such as lying under oath — because that falls under the jurisdiction of the federal government, not the state.
The prosecution’s count 15 against Trump alleges a conspiracy to fine, and count 27 alleges the filing of false documents in an exclusive federal tribunal, the United States District Court for the Northern District, rather than in a public record or court of the State of Georgia, Trump’s lawyers pointed out.
Trump’s legal team said there’s precedent for such a move, citing the case of In re Loney, 134 U.S. 372 (1890), in which the court ruled that the charges against the defendant were federal law, not state law. This means that even if state law appears to allow for prosecution in state court, state prosecutors cannot do so because only the federal government has the power to bring the charges.
As a result, the charges against Trump related to those actions must be dropped, his lawyers argued.
The brief also references another case from the 1800s, Ross v. State, 55 Ga. 192 (1875), in which the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that the offense contained in the document was an offense against the public justice of the United States, not just against the state of Georgia.
Additionally, Trump’s legal team cites a more recent case from 2008, People v. Hassan, 86 Cal.Rptr. 314, 323-24 (2008), where the state of California was prohibited from prosecution in a case related to false documents provided in connection with a federal immigration investigation.
The brief was filed on April 24, and Trump’s legal team has declined to comment further on the matter.
In August 2023, Trump and 18 others were indicted for allegedly interfering in the 2020 Georgia presidential election. Four of Trump’s codefendants have since entered guilty pleas and made deals with the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office. Some of the charges against Trump and the others have already been dropped.
Fulton County DA Fani Willis tried to bring Trump and the remaining defendants to trial in August of this year.
However, the trial has been delayed due to a series of controversies surrounding Willis — specifically her sexual relationship with her former special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, and the numerous motions that have been filed in connection to the case.
At this time, it is unclear when — or even if — Trump might go on trial in Georgia.
Stephen Dietrich is the publisher of The Horn News