West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has joined a 23-state coalition in demanding Special Counsel Jack Smith, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis immediately end their political prosecutions of President-elect Donald Trump.
The coalition says the prosecutions never should have been brought against Trump, and it says they now threaten a Constitutional crisis. A federal court already has dismissed one of Smith’s cases targeting Trump.
"I join my fellow attorneys general in urging Attorney General James, Special Counsel Smith, and District Attorney Wilis, to stop delegitimizing the judicial system with political attacks on President Trump," Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a press release.
The attorneys general say Smith’s prosecution has violated many Department of Justice policies and has been illegitimate since the beginning, noting that even the U.S. Supreme Court has acknowledged this is the “first criminal prosecution in our Nation’s history of a former president for actions taken during their presidency.”
James and Willis also are pursuing political prosecutions and other legal challenges against Trump.
“President of the United States is the most important job in the world,” the November 13 letter states. “The President leads the free world. And America just gave President Trump a mandate to lead the United States to a brighter future. Prosecutions aimed at ‘self-promotion’ are at no time appropriate.
“And for the sake of our nation, your prosecutions must now end.”
In the letter, the attorneys general say the Office of Legal Counsel has for decades held the position that states and their subdivisions cannot prosecute the sitting president of the United States.
“In 2000, the Department of Justice under President Clinton explained why ‘criminal prosecution of a sitting President would impermissibly undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions,’” the letter states.
Following the states’ letter, Smith announced he will drop his case. The states are demanding James and Willis also end their political prosecutions and other legal challenges targeting Trump.
“Just as federalism protects the states from unwarranted federal intrusion, the Constitution protects the president from state and local prosecutions that frustrate his constitutionally vested authority to implement national policy,” the November 13 letter states. “All of that just buttresses common sense. Even putting aside the meritless claims that you have raised — and the ahistorical tactics you adopted in your attempt to prosecute the leader of an opposing political party — given the timing, there is no way that President Trump will be tried, convicted, or sentenced before taking office.
“A punitive damages award amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars imposed in a first-of-its-kind civil fraud trial fares no better. And once President Trump is again in office, continuing to attempt to prosecute or pursue the sitting President risks real harm to our federal system.”
Also joining West Virginia and Louisiana in the Iowa-led letter are the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia.