U.S. President-elect Donald Trump attends a viewing of the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket in Brownsville, Texas, United States, November 19, 2024.
Brandon Bell | Via Reuters
President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday asked the Georgia Court of Appeals to permanently dismiss criminal proceedings related to his attempt to overturn his 2020 presidential election defeat in the state.
Trump's lawyer, Steven Sadow, asked the appeals court in a filing to confirm that it lacked jurisdiction over the case and then order a state court in Atlanta to “immediately dismiss” the charges against the president-elect.
Sadow argued that Georgia courts lost jurisdiction over the case because Trump won the 2024 election.
Another Trump defense attorney made a similar argument Tuesday as he asked a New York state court judge to dismiss the hush money case against him there.
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Sadow wrote in his filing in Georgia on Wednesday: “A sitting president is completely immune from indictment or criminal proceedings, whether at the state or federal level, under the U.S. Constitution.”
Even though Trump won't be sworn in until Jan. 20, the appeals court should “inquire as to its jurisdiction” to continue hearing the appeal “well before the inauguration,” Sadow wrote.
“This investigation should result in this court determining that both this court and the trial court have no jurisdiction to decide any further criminal proceedings against President Trump,” he wrote, “given the continued indictment and prosecution of President Trump by the State of Georgia is unconstitutional.”
The criminal case was already on hold before the election when Trump tried in the appeals court to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis because of her romantic relationship with a prosecutor on her team.
Sadow noted in a separate statement Wednesday that special counsel Jack Smith recently dropped two federal criminal cases against Trump based on his election victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in November.
These federal cases involved Trump's efforts to overturn his loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 national election and Trump's withholding of secret government documents after he left the White House in January 2021.
Smith's move left only two criminal cases pending against Trump: in Fulton County, Georgia, and in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Trump was convicted in May in Manhattan on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with a $130,000 payment that his then-personal attorney Michael Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 presidential election.
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