Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has filed suit against the State of New York over the prosecution, gag order, and sentencing of former President Donald Trump.
Baily, a former Army officer and Iraq War veteran, accused New York officials of engaging in lawfare and “hijacking the presidential election by illegally scheming to jail” their political opponent.
In a press release Wednesday, Bailey declared that those actions have undermined Trump’s ability to campaign for president, and violated “the rights of Missourians to hear from a presidential candidate” in the 2024 election.
The Missouri AG’s motion of preliminary injunction asks the Supreme Court to “immediately halt any further action in the New York case until after the American people have had their say at the ballot box.”
Bailey also petitioned SCOTUS to declare that New York’s restrictions on Trump ability to campaign “unlawfully interfere with the presidential election,” asked the court to “remove any gag orders against the former president, and to halt the impending sentencing until after the presidential election.”
“This overt meddling in a presidential election sabotages Missourians’ ability to hear from and cast a fully-informed vote for president mere months before the election,” Bailey said.
“Right now, Missouri has a huge problem with New York. Instead of letting presidential candidates campaign on their own merits, radical progressives in New York are trying to rig the 2024 election by waging a direct attack on our democratic process,” said Attorney General Bailey. “I will not sit idly by while Soros-backed prosecutors hold Missouri voters hostage in this presidential election. I am filing suit to ensure every Missourian can exercise their right to hear from and vote for their preferred presidential candidate.”
The lawsuit comes a month after a jury of 12 New Yorkers found Trump guilty on all 34 counts in the “hush money” trial in Manhattan, once considered the weakest of all the cases against the former president.
Bailey’s motion alleges three specific violations:
Count I: Interference with the Presidential Election in other States
Count II: Violation of Purcell (a federal case prohibiting courts from sowing voter confusion or changing election rules in the months leading up to an election)
Count III: Violation of the First Amendment rights of voters in other States
“This lawfare is poisonous to American democracy,” Bailey asserts in the lawsuit. “The American people ought to be able to participate in a presidential election free from New York’s interference. Any gag order and sentence should be stayed until after the election.”
The Missouri AG argues in his lawsuit that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought the charges against Trump only “to boost Joe Biden’s campaign and keep Trump out of the White House.”
Bragg was previously involved in civil litigation against the former President while working for the New York Attorney General’s Office and then campaigned for his current position by promising to use that experience to prosecute him. Additionally, Bragg hired the third highest ranking member from Biden’s Department of Justice, Matthew Colangelo, to lead the prosecution against Biden’s political opponent.
Bailey’s lawsuit further argues that Judge Merchan violated state judicial ethics rules by donating to the Biden campaign. The Missouri AG stated that “Merchan refused to recuse himself from the case despite having donated to Trump’s general-election opponent and having a close family member who stood to gain financially from a conviction.” The lawsuit goes on to note that Merchan later imposed a gag order on Trump when he pointed out these facts to the public.
Bailey called the Empire State’s actions “reprehensible lawfare,” stating in the lawsuit that “Trump’s conviction is very likely to be overturned on appeal. But by then, the constraints New York has sought to impose on Trump to limit his ability to campaign will already have had their full effect. Missouri has a strong, judicially enforceable interest in its citizens and electors being able to hear Trump’s campaigning free from any gag order or other interference imposed by the State of New York.”
“New York is waging war on American Democracy—and Missouri will not let it stand,” Bailey declared on X.
