Trump’s lawyers to seek dismissal of federal election subversion case as two sides weigh next steps
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s lawyers want to ask a judge to dismiss the case case of federal election subversion against the former president, following a Supreme Court ruling that limited the scope of the historic prosecution, according to a court document filed Friday night.
The defense team predicted a series of potential challenges to the case as it seeks to delay or even abandon a criminal case against Trump, in which he is accused of plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
These include arguments that a new and more limited charge released by prosecutors this week still include allegations for which Trump, as a former president, has immunity, such as his conversations with former Vice President Mike Pence. Defense attorneys also plan to have the case dismissed on the the same grounds cited by a federal judge in Florida by dismissing a separate prosecution of Trump last month.
The filing in federal court in Washington, filed jointly by prosecutors and defense attorneys, contains conflicting proposals for next steps in the criminal case and comes ahead of a status conference scheduled for next week — the first court appearance in the case in months.
The document is an acknowledgement of the radically changed legal landscape since special counsel Jack Smith filed the indictment in June 2023 and the challenges prosecutors have faced in their efforts to hold Trump accountable this year.
Though prosecutors initially accused Trump of a grand scheme to stay in power and block a peaceful transfer of power, they must now deal with the fallout from a Supreme Court ruling that said former presidents enjoy absolute immunity for essential constitutional acts and are presumptively immune for other official acts they perform as president.
Smith’s team responded to the ruling this week with a new complaint that dropped allegations related to Trump’s dealings with the Justice Department, saying the court found Trump immune in that regard.
But Trump’s lawyers argue that prosecutors haven’t gone far enough, saying they “strongly maintain that many of the types of conduct alleged in the superseding indictment are immune — including, but not limited to, tweets and public statements about the 2020 federal presidential election, communications with state officials about the federal election, and allegations relating to alternate slates of electors.”