2nd Dismissal Request Shot Down!
Washington, Aug 3 (EFE) .-
United States Federal judge Tanya Chutkan rejected another request Saturday by former President Donald Trump to dismiss the case against him for the 2021 Capitol assault by claiming to be persecuted by the current administration.
The New York tycoon’s defense had presented press articles that recounted sitting President Joe Biden’s frustration at the slow pace of the legal cases against Trump and that, in the Republican’s opinion, showed that he was charged for political reasons.
“There is no indication that President Biden ever made such comments to the Attorney General or the Department of Justice, much less that such comments resulted in politically motivated actions,” Chutkan said in a court filing denying Trump’s request.
The Republican is accused in federal court in the District of Columbia of having conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election in which he lost to Biden and of having instigated the assault on the Capitol in January 2021 to stop the transition of power.
The case returned Friday to Judge Chutkan after having been paralyzed for eight months because Trump appealed to the supreme court claiming he has immunity from prosecution because he was president.
The supreme court ruled last month that former presidents have immunity for “official acts” carried out when they were in power, and left it up to lower courts to determine whether what Trump did after the election was part of the duties of his office.
The Capitol assault case is one of four criminal charges against Trump. In May, he was found guilty in New York of falsifying business records, but the sentence is yet to be handed down.
In Georgia, he is accused of leading a plot to try to overturn the 2020 election results in the state and, in Florida, was accused of illegally withholding classified documents when he left the White House, but the judge dismissed the case last month. EFE