In a new document made public on Tuesday, the lawyers for US President-elect Donald Trump attempted to get his historic criminal fraud conviction overturned, claiming that President Joe Biden had applied a similar logic when he pardoned his son, Hunter Biden.
After Hunter was found guilty earlier this year of tax evasion and unlawful handgun possession, the Democratic lame duck president pardoned his son on Sunday, claiming the Department of Justice (DOJ) had “selectively and unfairly prosecuted” him “just because he is my son.”
Trump’s legal team utilized Biden’s remarks to support their own position in their Monday move to dismiss, which they submitted to presiding judge Juan Merchan.
According to the letter’s opening, Biden’s remarks “amounted to an extraordinary condemnation of President Biden’s own DOJ.”
“The politically motivated, election-interference witch hunts against President Trump were organized and managed by this same DOJ.”
Among other things, the 69-page brief cited the Presidential Transition Act and the idea of presidential immunity, which the Supreme Court has decided applies to “official acts” committed while in office, to “immediately dismiss the indictment and vacate the jury’s verdicts.”
The 78-year-old Trump was convicted in May of 34 charges of fabricating business documents to conceal the $130,000 he paid porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about an alleged extramarital affair in the closing days of the 2016 election campaign.
At a hearing on November 22, Merchan, the judge in the only criminal case against Trump that has proceeded to trial, indefinitely postponed Trump’s sentencing in light of his victory in the presidential election on November 5.
Merchan will now have to choose between dismissing the case completely or delaying any legal repercussions until after the conclusion of Trump’s next term in office, which starts on January 20, after Trump’s defense team filed to have the case dismissed.
Alvin Bragg, a Manhattan prosecutor, has backed the latter because of the “unprecedented circumstances” brought up by Trump’s election win.
During Trump’s hush money trial, Bragg had maintained that the payments were designed to conceal a scandal that would have damaged his campaign in the 2016 election, which Trump ultimately won over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels on numerous occasions.
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