Fulton County, Georgia Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee on Thursday dismissed two counts against former President Donald Trump for lack of jurisdiction. By the same logic, Trump's New York conviction should also be thrown out.
When Trump and 18 co-defendants were indicted, Breitbart News raised the issue that Georgia was attempting to enforce federal law in state courts, in apparent violation of the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.
Breitbart News reported (emphasis removed):
The indictment covers conduct in Georgia as well as other states. The indictment focuses on Georgia, but includes conduct in other states, such as the Pennsylvania voting fraud hearings. It also seeks to implicate Trump and his campaign in violation of federal law, suggesting that local county prosecutors believe they can enforce federal law. This may be an attempt to divert attention from Special U.S. Counsel Jack Smith, and may be unconstitutional.
Breitbart News also reported:
The indictment also seeks to use Georgia county courts to prosecute the defendants for crimes allegedly committed in violation of federal elections nationwide that would normally be subject to federal jurisdiction.
His decisionJudge McAfee noted that while not all state charges are preempted by federal law, such as the Electoral Count Act, “the U.S. Supreme Court has Ronnie incident134 U.S. 372 (1890), bars the power of the states to prosecute perjury and false filings in federal district courts, and therefore counts 14, 15, and 27 must be overturned.”
Counts 14, 15, and 27 relate to attempting to submit false documents, conspiring to submit false documents, and submitting false documents. Although the indictment cites Georgia statutes, the documents themselves were either filed in federal court (Count 27) or sent to federal court (Counts 14 and 15). (The documents filed were complaints of alleged voter fraud filed in federal court in Georgia, and the documents sent were lists of alternate electors sent to federal court.)
(Trump was indicted on counts 15 and 27, but the 14th count was not indicted, and three charges were dismissed, but only the second count related to Trump.)
Judge McAfee explained that “unlike counterfeit currency, which is used to defraud individuals within a state, the filing of a false document in a U.S. district court, like perjury, is a crime directly contrary to the public justice of the United States, for therein lies the primary effect of the false filing.” Because federal laws already exist that govern federal courts, states cannot prosecute alleged violations of those court rules on their own.
According to Judge McAfee's logic, Trump's 34 convictions in New York for filing false business returns should be overturned. Judge Juan Marchand allowed District Attorney Alvin Bragg to exceed the statute of limitations in arguing that Trump filed false returns to cover up other crimes, and allowed the jury to consider federal campaign finance laws as statutes that Trump may have violated. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has not brought any enforcement action against Trump, nor has it even found him to have violated its rules.
If federal courts and federal tribunals exist to enforce federal campaign finance laws or punish false filings, then it is likely unconstitutional for state courts to preempt the Federal Election Commission and federal courts, and Trump’s conviction should be overturned.
Joel B. Pollack is executive editor of Breitbart News. Breitbart News Sunday It airs Sundays from 7:00pm-10:00pm ET (4:00pm-7:00pm PT) on SiriusXM Patriot. He is the author of the following books: Agenda: What President Trump Should Do in His First 100 Daysavailable for pre-order on Amazon. He also Trumpian virtue: The lessons and legacy of Donald Trump's presidencyavailable now on Audible. He is the recipient of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter. Joel Pollack.
