WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump’s legal team filed multiple motions Thursday evening urging a Florida judge to dismiss the criminal case accusing him of illegally keeping classified documents, arguing in part that presidential immunity protects him against prosecution – an argument they have already presented to the US Supreme Court in its election interference case.
Attorneys Christopher Kise and Todd Blanche wrote that the complaint “concerns his alleged decision to designate documents as personal under the Presidential Records Act (PRA) and to cause the documents to be moved from the White House to Mar-a-Lago .” Because Trump made this decision while still in office, they wrote, it was “an official act, and as such, subject to presidential immunity.”
Trump faces dozens of felony charges in federal court in Florida, accusing him of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate and obstructing government efforts to retrieve them. The case is currently scheduled to go to trial on May 20, but that date could be postponed.
Trump’s lawyers also argued that Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of special counsel Jack Smith to investigate the former president was “illegal” and grounds for dismissing the documents case.
Smith’s other case against Trump was revealed in August when the former president was indicted in Washington on a misdemeanor charge for working to overturn the 2020 election results ahead of the violent riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. , 2021.
The case was scheduled to go to trial on March 4 in federal court in Washington. But that date was canceled amid a Trump call on the legally untested question of whether a former president is immune from prosecution for official actions in the White House. Trump’s lawyers have asked the Supreme Court to intervene, but it is not clear whether the justices will do so.
A June 2023 indictment accuses Trump of dozens of crimes, alleging that investigators recklessly stored boxes of sensitive documents at Mar-a-Lago in areas including a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, his bedroom and a storage room. Prosecutors have said the documents he kept, refused to return and in some cases showed to visitors jeopardized not only relations with foreign nations but also the safety of troops and confidential sources.
Trump faces four criminal charges in four different cities as he battles to reclaim the White House. The cases include a total of 91 felony counts.