President Trump’s legal team filed a motion to dismiss his Washington D.C. Federal indictment against him on the grounds of President Trump was adhering to the Constitution when he launched an election integrity inquiry regarding the 2020 election results.
The motion states ““The Constitution, the Supreme Court, and hundreds of years of history and tradition all make clear, the President’s motivations are not for the prosecution or this Court to decide.”
It goes on to state that under the US Constitution states the President must “take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” provided him with “absolute immunity,” from “fear that his political opponents may one day prosecute him for decisions they dislike.”
Trump’s legal teams also wrote in the filing that “Trump’s efforts to ensure election integrity, and to advocate for the same” sit “at the heart of his official responsibilities as President.”
Take a look:
NEW: Trump files motion to dismiss the Special Counsel’s 2020 election subversion case — argues Trump has absolute immunity for actions performed within “outer perimeter” of his official duties. https://t.co/oRzMLBKGAQ
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) October 5, 2023
BREAKING: Donald Trump has filed a motion to have his J6 case in D.C. dismissed immediately.
— Leading Report (@LeadingReport) October 5, 2023
Here’s what the Guardian reported:
In a new filing on Thursday, Trump’s lawyers argue that he has “absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions performed within the ‘outer perimeter’ of his official responsibility.”
The motion states:
“Breaking 234 years of precedent, the incumbent administration has charged President Trump for acts that lie not just within the ‘outer perimeter,’ but at the heart of his official responsibilities as President.
In doing so, the prosecution does not, and cannot, argue that President Trump’s efforts to ensure election integrity, and to advocate for the same, were outside the scope of his duties.
Instead, the prosecution falsely claimsthat President Trump’s motives were impure— that he purportedly “knew” that the widespread reports of fraud and election irregularities were untrue but sought to address them anyway.
NEW: Trump filed motion to dismiss Jack Smith’s Jan 6 indictment, argues his actions related to uncovering election fraud fell within scope of presidential authority: pic.twitter.com/WRSLDxdXXg
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) October 6, 2023
Per Politico:
Donald Trump’s months-long efforts to reverse his defeat in the 2020 election were “within the heartland” of his “official duties,” his lawyers claimed Thursday in a bid to get his federal criminal case in Washington, D.C., thrown out.
Defense attorneys John Lauro and Todd Blanche say special counsel Jack Smith’s case against the former president is an attempt to criminalize actions that were well within his White House duties, such as enforcing federal election laws. As a result, they said, the charges against Trump — accusing him of conspiracies to obstruct the election process and defraud the public — must be dismissed.
“The Constitution, the Supreme Court, and hundreds of years of history and tradition all make clear, the President’s motivations are not for the prosecution or this Court to decide,” Lauro and Blanche write. “Rather, where, as here, the President’s actions are within the ambit of his office, he is absolutely immune from prosecution.”
Trump’s immunity arguments in the federal case represent his most forceful rebuttal of Smith’s indictment, which alleges that Trump, despite knowing he lost the election, mounted a sweeping disinformation campaign to drive up pressure on states and then-Vice President Mike Pence to use their power to subvert the election process. That effort culminated in a violent assault on the Capitol, when a mob of Trump supporters breached the building in hopes of preventing Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory. The case is scheduled to go to trial on March 4.
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