Donald Trump’s lawyers filed a motion to pause the classified documents case in Florida.
“A partial stay is also appropriate to prevent further exploitation of judicial institutions and resources by Executive Branch personnel in connection with the shameful ongoing lawfare campaign,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
“Consistent with President Trump’s pending motion to dismiss based on Presidential immunity, the Supreme Court explained in Trump that it would ‘eviscerate the immunity we have recognized’ if a prosecutor could ‘do indirectly what he cannot do directly—invite the jury to examine acts for which a President is immune from prosecution to nonetheless prove his liability on any charge,’” the filing adds.
According to journalist Julie Kelly, Judge Aileen Cannon accepted the motion to pause the case.
She wrote on social media that Judge Cannon “set a briefing schedule on immunity matter thru this month. Very likely she’ll set a hearing sometime in August.”
The move follows the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity.
According to the decision, a former president has substantial immunity from prosecution for official acts committed while in office.
“Now if an incumbent who loses a very close, hotly contested election knows that a real possible nullity after leaving office is not that the president is going to be able to go off into a peaceful retirement, but that the president may be criminally prosecuted by a bitter political opponent, will that not lead us into a cycle that destabilizes the functioning of our country as a democracy? And we can look around the world and find countries where we have seen this process, where the loser gets thrown in jail,” Justice Samuel Alito said of charging a former president.