On Monday, attorneys for former President Donald Trump filed a number of motions to dismiss charges he faces in Georgia over his decision to challenge the state’s 2020 election results.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has accused Trump and 18 codefendants of election interference.
Trump himself faces 13 counts, including an alleged violation of the state’s racketeering laws.
In a pair of legal motions, Trump’s legal team used an argument made by legal representatives for attorney Kenneth Chesebro, according to NBC News.
Chesebro helped architect Trump’s strategy as it pertained to attempting to delay the certification of Georgia’s electoral votes.
Attorneys for Chesebro asked Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee last week to dismiss his case, citing the Supremacy Clause in the Constitution that prevents states from stepping into areas of the law that are “entirely within the ambit of federal authority.”
According to Cornell Law School, the Supremacy Clause “establishes that the federal constitution, and federal law generally, take precedence over state laws, and even state constitutions.”
The clause further “prohibits states from interfering with the federal government’s exercise of its constitutional powers, and from assuming any functions that are exclusively entrusted to the federal government.”
Trump’s legal team made the same jurisdictional argument as Chesebro and said the Supremacy Clause also applies to a RICO charge and charges of conspiracy he faces in Georgia.
In another maneuver, Trump’s attorneys filed a similar motion filed by attorneys for Rudy Giuliani.
NBC News did not specify what the motion was, but CNN reported last week Giuliani’s legal team asked Judge McAfee to dismiss his charges or at the very least to consider a hearing on the matter.
Giuliani argued the charges he faces in Fulton County unfairly attributed the practicing of his First Amendment to part of a broad criminal enterprise.
According to CNN, the former New York City mayor’s attorneys called Willis’ indictment “a conspiratorial bouillabaisse consisting of purported criminal acts, daily activities, and constitutionally protected speech” in the motion.
McAfee, who is only 34-years-old, has been assigned to preside over the cases of Trump and those Willis has charged alongside him in the case
The judge has not commented on the motions.
He was appointed to the bench in February by Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
“His experience as a tough prosecutor equips him to search out fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption, and bring those to justice who break the law,” Kemp said in a statement when he appointed McAfee to the Office of Inspector General in 2021.
Willis is pushing for an October trial date for all 19 people under indictment.
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