United States – The charges central to the case that Donald Trump illegally tried to overturn his 2020 election defeat are baseless, the former U.S. president wrote in a letter to a federal judge Thursday, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this week on a different case that set a higher standard for such actions, as reported by Reuters.
Trump Claims Charges Are Baseless in Court Filing
In a court filing, lawyers for Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, argued that the Supreme Court’s ruling means that U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan must dismiss charges filed against Trump accusing him of corruptly obstructing a congressional proceeding in continuing to challenge Biden’s election win and conspiring to do so.
Trump is also trying to have the two other charges in the indictment dismissed on other grounds.
Of the four count indictment that charges Trump with a multi part conspiracy to murder multiple votes and the certification of his lost election, Trump has pleaded not guilty.
Supreme Court Ruling Cited in Defense
The 6-3 Supreme Court decision in June, in which justices sided with a criminal defendant facing similar charges, also offered the constitutional underpinning for Trump’s argument.
The law requires defendants charged under it to have acted to impair the availability or integrity of documents or other records pertaining to an official proceeding; the court found or attempted to do the same.
The indictment charges that Trump tried to disrupt the session by promulgating ‘fraudulent slates’ of presidential electors pledged to his support in key battleground states where he lost and that he then pressured Pence, then vice president, to accept those pro-Trump electors as he presided over the certification.
Ongoing Legal Battle Over Election Charges
Trump’s lawyers argued that prosecutors could not prove an attempt to interfere with evidence for the certification of the election and could not be held responsible for the behavior of rioters who delayed the session of Congress, as reported by Reuters.
The filing was submitted just one day after prosecutors laid out a comprehensive overview of their case against Trump, asserting that it remains valid despite a different ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court regarding presidential immunity.