(USNewsMag.com) – Former President Donald Trump filed seven separate motions last week arguing various defenses, including presidential immunity, to have his charges dismissed for mishandling classified government material.
Trump’s lawyers filed multiple motions shortly before his Thursday, February 22nd, deadline, some of which are available to the public, while others remained sealed until specific redactions can be discussed. Some of the defenses Trump’s legal team filed are similar to arguments the former president filed during the prosecution against him in Washington, D.C., by special counsel Jack Smith for allegedly trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. One of those defenses is presidential immunity.
Thirty-two of the 40 felony counts he faces for mishandling classified material, specifically the willful retaining of national defense information, correspond to 32 separate documents the former president brought home to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after leaving office. Trump argued those counts should be tossed out because of his presidential immunity. Before leaving office, he claims that he used the Presidential Records Act to designate those specific documents as personal records. He’s also being accused of obstructing the retrieval of those documents by the government.
In the court papers, two of Trump’s lawyers wrote that his decision to designate the records “as personal” and remove them from the White House was “an official act within the ‘outer perimeter’” of Trump’s “official duties.” Trump is also making the same argument for immunity in his D.C. case, although the trial judge and appeals court have not been persuaded. The former president is now moving up to the US Supreme Court. The Supreme Court hasn’t taken up the case yet but is expected to make a decision soon.
In his classified documents case, Trump’s lawyers referenced this other case and the ongoing battle that must be determined by a Supreme Court decision, maintaining that the decisions against the former president were “erroneous” and that he will pursue “further review,” all the way up to the highest court “if necessary.”
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