Trump asks Georgia court to dismiss election interference case against him, saying a sitting president can’t be prosecuted
By Nick Valencia and Jason Morris, CNN
(CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump has asked a court to dismiss the criminal case against him related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
In a filing on Wednesday, Trump and his attorney argued that the Georgia state Court of Appeals lacks jurisdiction to “entertain any further criminal process” over him as the incoming president and the indictment should be dismissed.
“A sitting president is completely immune from indictment or any criminal process, state or federal,” Trump’s attorney Steve Sadow wrote in the filing. “President Trump respectfully submits that upon reaching that decision, this Court should dismiss his appeal for lack of jurisdiction with directions to the trial court to immediately dismiss the indictment against President Trump.”
Trump’s criminal case has effectively been on hold as the Georgia Court of Appeals prepares to hear arguments over whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis can remain on the case.
“Any ongoing criminal proceeding against a sitting president must be dismissed under the U.S. Constitution,” Sadow added in a statement. He noted that two federal criminal cases against Trump – over 2020 election interference and his handling of classified information – have already been dropped by the Justice Department.
The current fate of Willis’ racketeering case against Trump in Georgia hinges on whether Willis, a Democrat, is disqualified from prosecuting the matter after details of her prior romantic relationship with her former special prosecutor came to light earlier this year.
The Georgia Court of Appeals is considering whether Willis should be allowed to stay on the case, and is expected to issue a ruling by the spring.
Chesebro seeks to invalidate guilty plea
Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney who helped orchestrate the 2020 fake electors plot, is seeking to invalidate his guilty plea in the criminal case in Georgia where he was charged with being part of a conspiracy alongside Trump and others.
Chesebro agreed to plead guilty in October 2023 to one felony – conspiracy to commit filing false documents. The right-wing attorney helped devise the Trump campaign’s plot to put forward unauthorized slates of GOP electors in Georgia and six other states in 2020. (In previous court filings, Chesebro’s lawyers have denied that he devised the plan.)
But on Tuesday, Chesebro’s attorney filed a post-conviction challenge to the validity of the indictment and moved to have his guilty plea thrown out. His attorney pointed to Judge Scott McAfee’s decision in September dismissing some of the charges in the sweeping case, including the charge to which Chesebro pleaded guilty.
“This Court held that Count 15 … is unconstitutional as applied to the facts alleged in the indictment. The reason being that federal law ‘preempts the State’s ability to prosecute perjury and false filings in a federal district court,’ thereby requiring that Count 15 be quashed,” the filing said.
Chesebro was originally charged with seven crimes, including a violation of Georgia’s RICO Act, conspiracy to commit forgery and conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer. Six of the seven felony charges were dropped as part of his plea deal.
McAfee sentenced Chesebro to five years of probation and ordered him to pay $5,000 in restitution, and Chesebro agreed to testify in future court proceedings.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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