Trump Piggybacks on Co-Defendant Lawyer Sidney Powell’s Effort to Dismiss Georgia Racketeering Charge

Former President Donald Trump on Monday sought to challenge the racketeering charge he faces in the sweeping Georgia election case by borrowing earlier arguments from his former election lawyer Sidney Powell, who faces the same charge.

Powell last week filed a motion seeking to dismiss the racketeering charge she faces, along with Trump and the other 17 defendants in the case. Powell contested the RICO charge as “unconstitutional as applied here,” arguing that her alleged involvement in the breach of election systems in rural and conservative Coffee County, Georgia, on January 7, 2021, counts as “one transaction as a matter of law under RICO."

In a three-sentence filing on Monday, Trump attorney Steven Sadow said he wishes to adopt Powell's arguments.

"Specifically, President Trump adopts Powell’s particularized argument in Part III that count one must be dismissed for violation of fundamental constitutional principles of due process and fair warning," Sadow wrote.

It is not the first time Trump has borrowed arguments from his former lawyers who are now co-defendants in the Georgia case.

Earlier this month, Trump made a series of short filings to adopt arguments by his former lawyers Kenneth Chesebro, Rudy Giuliani and Ray Stallings Smith seeking to dismiss several charges in the case.

The former president, members of his inner circle, and other Trump allies face a sprawling 97-page indictment accusing them of a wide-ranging conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The charges stem from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ 2 ½-year probe into alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state.

Trump faces a total of 13 state felony counts in the wide-ranging case involving 19 defendants who allegedly took part in an effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.

The Georgia charges are among 91 state and federal felony counts Trump is facing in four different jurisdictions. He has entered not guilty pleas to all charges.

Both Powell and Chesebro have requested expedited proceedings under Georgia's Speedy Trial Act, and are scheduled to go to trial beginning Oct. 23.