Advertisement

Close this content

Trump Team Plans Push to Get Georgia’s 2020 Election Case Tossed

David Voreacos

8 November 2024 at 10:27 am·2-min read

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump’s lawyers are preparing to seek dismissal of Georgia’s criminal case against him for trying to overturn the 2020 election as part of a broader attempt to end his prosecutions before his inauguration.

Most Read from Bloomberg

In private discussions since his election on Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers have been planning an argument that the case shouldn’t move ahead because he is returning to the White House, according to a person familiar with the matter. The strategy hinges on convincing a court that Justice Department guidelines against federal prosecutions of a sitting president also apply to a president-elect facing state charges.

Trump’s lawyers haven’t been able to thwart criminal cases against him in state courts in New York and Georgia, but his legal team is reinvigorating its push since he defeated Kamala Harris. Meanwhile, the special counsel overseeing his two federal cases is preparing to drop those prosecutions before he’s sworn in on Jan. 20.

Georgia’s case against Trump and 14 remaining co-defendants involves allegations that they conspired to spread false claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election and pressured state officials to overturn Joe Biden’s win.

Although Trump has denied any wrongdoing, four other defendants in the case have pleaded guilty. Trump faces eight felony counts in Georgia, after the Atlanta judge overseeing the case, Scott McAfee, dismissed some charges against him.

Under the strategy being considered by Trump’s lawyers, his legal team would argue he is also covered by a 2000 opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel that concluded a sitting president can’t be prosecuted in a federal case, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters.

McAfee froze the proceedings until Georgia’s state Court of Appeals decides whether to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the case. Trump’s lawyers have argued that she should be taken off the case because she had a romantic relationship with her lead prosecutor.

A spokesperson for Willis, a Democrat who was re-elected Tuesday, didn’t respond to a request for comment. Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign spokesman, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.

BuzzFeed
People Can't Believe Donald Trump's Response To Being Asked About His Plans To Lower Grocery Prices
"Look, they got them up. I'd like to bring them down. It's hard to bring things down once they're up. You know, it's very hard." —Donald Trump
CNN
Xi’s RSVP is a snub to Trump, but the inauguration invite is still a big deal
Imagine the scene, at noon, on January 20, on the west front of the US Capitol.
HuffPost
Authoritarianism Expert Flags Chilling Thing That’s ‘Happening Now’ With Donald Trump
Ruth Ben-Ghiat talked about the "personalist rule" and its worrying effects.
HuffPost
Stephen Colbert Predicts Wildly Petty Trump Act That Will Make Headlines Next
"You know that's coming," the "Late Show" host joked.
Deadline
Donald Trump Ordered To Sit For Deposition Next Week In His Defamation Lawsuit Against ABC
Donald Trump has been ordered by a federal judge to sit for a deposition next week as part of his defamation litigation against ABC. U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette M. Reid wrote that the deposition should take place some time the week of Dec. 14 and should be limited to four hours. It also should be …
The Hill
Opinion - US would face a 4-way axis in confrontation with China
Even those who wish to focus solely on a possible conflict with China should recognize that Beijing has allies who almost certainly would come to its aid.
NewsWire
Update on man who allegedly raped 90yo
The case that traumatised the Central Coast region of NSW last year has taken another turn after the alleged victim died from her injuries.
The Hill
Trump team rejects Bragg’s ‘Dark Dream Scenario’ for hush money case
President-elect Trump’s attorneys condemned Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s (D) suggested alternatives to dismissing Trump’s hush money criminal conviction, going as far to call one of them “unhinged” and “absurd” Friday. It remains unclear if New York Judge Juan Merchan will consider the new filing, as he previously wrote he would only accept one written…
CNN
Why Israel captured Syria’s tallest mountain just hours after Assad fell
Israel wasted no time after Bashar al-Assad’s fall to bomb all the Syrian military assets it wanted to keep out of the rebels’ hands – striking nearly 500 targets, destroying the navy, and taking out, it claims, 90% of Syria’s known surface-to-air missiles.
NewsWire
Cops reveal horror details in airport body find
Police have revealed some disturbing new details after a woman was found dead wrapped in plastic near Sydney Airport.
CNN
US serviceman sentenced to 5 years for kidnapping and raping Japanese schoolgirl, officials say
A US serviceman was sentenced to five years in prison for kidnapping and raping an underage girl last year, an official from Naha District Court on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa told CNN Friday.
HuffPost
Donald Trump Calls On Feds To Either Explain The Mystery Drones Or Shoot Them Down
Federal officials have said there is no threat to public safety from the flying objects, whose origin and nature remain unclear.
NewsWire
Man accused of wild nude rampage
Dramatic footage has captured a man allegedly going on a wild nude rampage through one city’s major night spot, before he is stopped by multiple cops.
InStyle
A Royal Family Maid Was Arrested For Assault After an "Out of Control" Christmas Party
Buckingham Palace addressed the incident and ongoing investigation in a statement.
CNN
Battered corpses show the horrors of life and death under Syria’s Assad
The 35 or so bodies were found in a military hospital in the Syrian capital of Damascus, days after the regime fell. They are believed to be among the last victims of Assad.
BBC
Man jailed for life for killing partner's child
Jeff Scott and the child's mother wheeled her two-year-old daughter's body around in a pushchair.
The Daily Beast
‘The View’s’ Ana Navarro Scolds Joy Behar for NSFW Trump Joke
Joy Behar earned herself a scolding from co-host Ana Navarro on Friday’s The View when she made a NSFW quip about Donald Trump’s comment that it’s “hard to bring things down when they’re up,” while discussing his campaign promises on cost of groceries with Time magazine. “I think it’s the other way around too,” Behar said with a wink during the show’s first segment, prompting smirks and grimaces from her co-hosts. In case the audience didn’t catch the joke, she doubled down, “It’s very hard—very
CNN
Assad exhibited little of the tackiness of Iraq’s Saddam. But his rule was just as brutal
Slender shoulders, a limp handshake and soft-spoken lisp. Those were the most vivid memories from my meeting with Bashar al Assad.
NewsWire
‘Sadistic’ torturer’s appeal hits snag
A man serving multiple life sentences for the “sadistic” torture and rape of a woman faces a major obstacle in his appeal against his conviction.
CNN
Biden admin says it is surging deliveries to Ukraine as Trump criticizes decision to allow US weapons to strike inside Russia
The Biden administration is working to surge deliveries of weapons to Ukraine in its final days in office in a concerted effort to put Kyiv on a strong footing going into 2025, according to a senior administration official.