Main image: Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks after voting in the Florida primary election in Palm Beach, Fla., Tuesday, March 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee); Inset right: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis looks on during a hearing on the Georgia election interference case, Friday, March, 1, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alex Slitz, Pool).
The defense for Donald Trump is trying to dismiss two counts in the Georgia RICO case, contending in a Wednesday filing that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) has gone too far.
Defense attorney Steven Sadow, who entered the case last August, implored Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee to find that the two challenged charges exceed the state’s jurisdiction, since those counts related to documents filed in federal courts.
“Those counts cannot stand because the State of Georgia lacks the authority to criminalize conduct under a state statute, here O.C.G.A. § 16-10-20.1(b)(1), where such conduct is directed at a federal forum, here the federal judiciary,” said the supplemental filing in support of dismissing counts 15 and 27.
Sadow argued that the case In re Loney, 134 U.S. 372 (1890), supports the defense position that Willis “cannot punish the filing of an allegedly false document in federal court, as the power to do so belongs solely to the federal government.”
As the Georgia RICO indictment shows, count 15 alleged a conspiracy to file false documents, while count 27 alleged the filing of false documents.
The indictment alleged that Trump, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Ken Chesebro, and others conspired together to file the document “CERTIFICATE OF THE VOTES OF THE 2020 ELECTORS from GEORGIA” in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia when they knew it was not true that those were “duly elected and qualified” electors.
Trump and Eastman were also indicted in count 27 for filing a series of 2020 election falsehoods in a lawsuit against Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, the documents said. The complaint, the indictment added, included “materially false statements” that minors, felons, dead people, and others illegally voted in the 2020 election and marred the contest.
Sadow said that “because the conduct charged in both counts actually and directly impacts the judiciary of the United States, it contravenes federal, not state criminal law,” meaning Willis should not be allowed to prosecute Trump for these alleged offenses.
“Using (which necessarily includes filing) false documents in the jurisdiction of the judiciary of the United States is criminalized by a specific federal statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(3),” the filing contained. “That statute is designed to protect the federal interest against the use of allegedly false documents in connection with the United States judiciary. The alleged conduct which the state is attempting to prosecute in counts 15 and 27 is addressed by the federal false statement statute and thus jurisdiction is exclusively vested in federal court.”
In closing, Sadow said the state statute Willis relies on “reaches too far” considering her “plain purpose” is to “protect the integrity of federal matters.”
The state statute, therefore, “may not be applied to criminalize the conduct alleged,” according to the defense.
Read the Trump supplemental brief in support here.
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