Attorneys for the former president filed a slew of legal motions Monday night arguing the DOJ’s case against Trump has no standing
Donald Trump’s legal team has filed a flurry of legal motions attempting to throw a wrench in the Justice Department’s 2020 election interference case against him.
The former president’s lawyers submitted four motions to dismiss, in whole or in part, in D.C. court late Monday night. Each one employs a different legal argument to request the case against Trump be thrown out.
Many of the arguments made by Trump’s team are on shaky legal ground themselves. Attorneys argued that the charges against Trump violated his First Amendment right to petition the government when he questioned the results of the 2020 election. They also claim that Trump cannot be tried in relation to his post-election activities because he was already acquitted by the Senate during 2021’s impeachment proceedings against him. Another filing argues that the case should be dismissed on unproven allegations that President Biden “pressured the DOJ to pursue a nakedly political indictment” against his 2024 rival. Yet another requests that any and all mentions of the violence that took place on Jan. 6 be stricken from the indictment against Trump.
The various arguments are a legal pile-on to a claim made earlier this month by the former president’s attorneys: that Trump cannot be tried due to “presidential immunity.”
As previously reported by Rolling Stone, amid the mountain of criminal cases Trump has privately expressed his concern to close advisers that he could end up in prison, and it’s clear the former president is willing to exhaust every potential legal avenue to avoid having the cases move forward. Trump’s D.C. case is expected to go to trial in March 2024.