Topline
President-elect Donald Trump asked for his criminal charges in Georgia to be thrown out Wednesday, citing his impending inauguration, as the Georgia case is now Trump’s sole surviving indictment that could still go to trial after his other criminal cases fell apart in the wake of his presidential win.
President-elect Donald Trump looks on during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on November … [+]
Key Facts
Trump’s lawyers asked for a Georgia state appeals court to dismiss his appeal seeking to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from her office’s broader criminal case against Trump, as Willis indicted Trump and his allies on felony charges based on their efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 election.
The court should throw out that appeal and rule they don’t have jurisdiction to hear it anymore because Trump will be president, his lawyers argued, and then direct the lower trial court to also dismiss the charges against him, completely killing the case.
Trump’s attorneys argued Trump is fully immune from prosecution as president and thus the charges against him have to be thrown out before he’s inaugurated, pointing to the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause and the Justice Department’s policy against prosecuting sitting presidents, which Special Counsel Jack Smith previously cited as reason to end the federal criminal cases against Trump.
The Georgia case has been paused for months while the appeals court decides Willis’ fate, as Trump and his co-defendants have sought to have her disqualified over her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the former lead prosecutor on the case.
The case has so far been the only one that hasn’t yet been affected by Trump’s electoral win, after Smith dismissed the federal government’s two cases against Trump and his sentencing in his Manhattan criminal case was indefinitely postponed.
What To Watch For
It’s unclear when the court could rule on Trump’s request and the issue of whether to throw out the charges, though it’s likely to be in the coming weeks given Trump’s request that the dispute be decided before Inauguration Day. Even if the court does leave the indictment in place, it’s expected that the case would be paused while Trump is in office, meaning he would not go to trial until 2029 at the earliest. Trump’s allies who have also been charged in the case—including ex-attorney Rudy Giuliani and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows—will not be affected by whatever the court decides about Trump’s charges, and their cases still could go to trial while Trump is in office even if the charges against him are dismissed.
Can Trump Pardon Himself In Georgia?
If the court rules against Trump and keeps the charges against him in place, he would not be able to pardon himself once he’s in office. The president can only pardon federal charges, which wouldn’t apply here since the case was brought in state court.
Tangent
Trump’s request in the Georgia case came hours after his former attorney Kenneth Chesebro asked to reverse his previous guilty plea as part of the case, after Chesebro took a plea deal pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents in exchange for having other counts against him dropped and avoiding prison time. Chesebro argued that should be invalidated, however, after the court threw out other defendants’ charges for the same crime he pleaded guilty to. The court has not yet ruled on his request.
Key Background
Trump was indicted in Georgia in August 2023 on 13 felony counts, though two counts were later thrown out. Prosecutors have accused him and his allies of participating in a wide-ranging racketeering scheme aiming to overturn the 2020 election results, and Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges, decrying the case and his other criminal cases as “witch hunts” that were designed to harm his presidential campaign. While prosecutors had hoped for the case to go to trial this summer, proceedings stalled amid the debate over whether Willis should be disqualified, as Trump’s lawyers successfully managed to keep both this case and his two federal cases from going to trial before Election Day. Trump’s presidential win has been a death knell for his criminal cases given the DOJ’s precedent against prosecuting sitting presidents, resulting in his two federal cases ending. While Trump’s conviction in Manhattan on 34 felony counts is still in place—even though the sentencing has been postponed—Trump is also attempting to end that case completely, filing a motion in court Tuesday asking for the guilty verdict to be thrown out in light of his impending inauguration.
