In his latest legal maneuver, Donald J. Trump asked for a court order That would nullify the work of an Atlanta special grand jury on Friday and disqualify Fani T. Willis, the prosecutor leading an election interference investigation in Georgia.
In the investigation, which has been underway for more than two years, a decision on the indictments is looming. Fulton County District Attorney Ms. Willis said the decision will come in the first half of August; She recently asked judges in a downtown Atlanta court not to schedule trials for part of that time as she prepares to file charges.
Trump’s lawyers made their claim in a filing with the Georgia Supreme Court. They want the court to reject the evidence collected by the special grand jury.
Although the Georgia Supreme Court is predominantly Republican, Trump’s legal team acknowledged in its filing that its latest ploy was a gamble, admitting that it has identified « no case in 40 years » where the court has intervened in the way which he was looking for. « Then again, there’s never been a case like this, » he added.
The investigation looked into whether the former president and his allies illegally interfered in the 2020 election in Georgia, where Trump narrowly lost to President Biden. The special grand jury heard evidence for about seven months and recommended that more than a dozen people be indicted; her parent company strongly hinted in a New York Times interview in February that Mr. Trump was among them. To bring any charges, Ms. Willis must now ask the charge to a regular grand jury.
The Trump team’s filing raises a number of legal concerns, both about Georgia’s law regarding special grand juries and how a special grand jury was used in this investigation.
Trump’s local legal team includes attorneys Drew Findling, Marissa Goldberg and Jennifer Little. Their filing assumes their client will be charged, saying Ms. Willis « now seeks an indictment, the basis for which would be evidence illegally obtained during special purpose grand jury proceedings. »
The district attorney’s office did not make immediate comments on the latest filing.
Intervening in a potential criminal case before a charge is even filed is tricky. Trump’s lawyers have already tried to scuttle the investigation with a motion, filed in March, to quash much of the evidence and remove Ms. Willis from the investigation. Much to their frustration, the Superior Court judge handling the case, Robert CI McBurney, has yet to rule on the motion.
« Ctangled between the protected passivity of the supervising judge and the impending indictment of the district attorney, the applicant has no meaningful choice but to seek the intervention of this court, » the lawyers wrote in their filing Friday to the US Supreme Court. State.
« None of these processes have been normal or reasonable, » they wrote, adding that « the almost inevitable conclusion is that the anomalies » are « because the signatory is President Donald J. Trump. »
