Fani Willis is challenging Donald Trump’s claim that presidential immunity should prevent him from going to trial in Fulton County, Georgia. On Dec. 18, the Fulton County District Attorney and her team filed a motion to move forward with the RICO case surrounding Trump’s alleged attempt to steal the 2020 election.
The motion was in response to Trump’s attorneys who asked the Georgia Court of Appeals to dismiss the RICO case presented by Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis. Trump’s lawyers claimed that it is unconstitutional to prosecute a person who is about to become president. In the filing, Trump’s team wrote, “A sitting president is completely immune from indictment or any criminal process, state or federal.”
It only requested protection for Trump and did not include his 14 co-defendants.
Chief Senior Assistant District Attorney Donald Wakeford., a member of Willis’ team, responded with a motion to deny Trump’s request.
The D.A.’s office shared that Trump was not president yet and currently lacks any perceived immunity stating, “While the courts’ understanding of presidential immunity continues to evolve, ‘president-elect immunity’ obviously does not exist. The U.S. Constitution places all the authority of the chief executive in the incumbent president, while a president-elect holds none.”
Willis office also challenged Trump being immune from state prosecution because the claim relies on a memo from the Justice Department and is not case law.
“Similarly, Appellant notes that the states may not ‘impede’ or ‘interfere’ with a sitting president’s ability to perform their duties but neglects to explain how this principle practically applies to the present case,” the D.A.’s office claimed.
And the D.A.’s office wrote in the filing that Trump does not specify or articulate how the appeal — or indeed, any other aspect of this case — will constitutionally impede or interfere with his duties once he assumes office…In other words, Appellant has not done the work but would very much like for this Court to do so.”
The RICO case centers around the 2020 election probe when Trump asked Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger during a phone call to help him secure over 11,000 votes, the amount in which he trailed Joe Biden in Georgia.
Meadows argued that due to him being a federal officer during the alleged crimes, the case should be taken to a federal court. The move to federal court would have given Meadows a more favorable jury pool and the possibility of being pardoned by president-elect Trump.
Prior to the Supreme Court’s decision to decline to hear Meadow’s appeal, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled that Meadows is no longer a federal official and his actions were “not related to his official duties.”
As Trump prepares to head back to the White House, Willis continues to prepare for the election interference trial.
On Oct. 16, Willis asked Georgia’s Court of Appeals to reinstate six criminal charges against Trump and five others who are his co-defendants. The six counts that were dismissed center around alleged act that Trump and his cohorts urged others to violate their oath of office, but the indictment should add further details of the actual office that was violated, Judge McAfee stated in March.
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