Former President Donald Trump waits for the start of proceedings in Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, April 23, 2024, in New York.
Lawyers for Donald Trump urged the judge who presided over his conviction for falsifying business records to dismiss the indictment against the president-elect, citing the language President Joe Biden used when he announced he had pardoned his son.
"Yesterday, in issuing a 10-year pardon to Hunter Biden that covers any and all crimes whether charged or uncharged, President Biden asserted that his son was 'selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,' and 'treated differently,'" the filing, which was made public Tuesday, reads.
“President Biden argued that ‘raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.’ These comments amounted to an extraordinary condemnation of President Biden’s own DOJ,” the filing continued, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg “has engaged in ‘precisely the type of political theater’ that President Biden has condemned.”
Bragg's office prosecuted Trump for falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the closing days of the 2016 presidential election. A jury in May found Trump guilty on all 34 counts. Judge Juan Merchan has indefinitely postponed Trump's sentencing in light of his election win and arguments that Trump is protected by presidential immunity.
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The DA's office had said it was not opposed to the postponement.
In their filing, Trump attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove cited presidential immunity protections as a reason for Merchan to dismiss the indictment, while also portraying the prosecution as politically motivated and legally problematic.
"This case is based on a contrived, defective, and unprecedented legal theory relating to 2017 entries in documents that were maintained hundreds of miles away from the White House where President Trump was running the country," the filing says, adding "this case should never have been brought."
The DA's "disruptions to the institution of the Presidency violate the Presidential immunity doctrine because they threaten the functioning of the federal government," the filing said.
The lawyers also took aim at a suggestion by the DA's office that the case could be put on hold until Trump has completed his time in office. The prosecutors' "ridiculous suggestion that they could simply resume proceedings after President Trump leaves Office, more than a decade after they commenced their investigation in 2018, is not an option," the filing said.
The filing contends another reason the case should be tossed is Trump's "extraordinary service" to the country. "Trump’s civic and financial contributions to this City and the Nation are too numerous to count," it says.
They also urged the judge to dismiss the indictment in the "interests of justice," because the prosecution threatens “enduring consequences upon the balanced power structure of our republic, and the type of factional strife that President Biden decried in yesterdays blanket pardon announcement."
"As President Biden put it yesterday, 'Enough is enough,'” it added.
The filing by Blanche and Bove also takes a number of digs at the Justice Department for its prosecutions of Trump, which were dropped after his re-election.
"This is the same DOJ that coordinated and oversaw the politically-motivated, election-interference witch hunts targeting President Trump," it said.
While Trump has often complained about the Justice Department in the past, Blanche and Bove's remarks in the filing are notable because Trump has said he intends to nominate both for top jobs in the department.
The filing urges the judge to toss the case, and says if he disagrees and plans to schedule a sentencing, he should grant Trump "a two-week stay to provide a reasonable opportunity to pursue federal injunctive relief."
Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump, called the filing a "powerhouse motion" that "provides every possible chance for Judge Merchan to do the right thing and end what remains of this charade immediately."
The DA's office has until Dec. 9 to respond.
Bragg's office declined comment on the filing.
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