On Monday, the Supreme Court of Georgia turned down an attempt by former President Donald Trump to stop the Fulton County District Attorney’s investigation into possible interference in the state’s 2020 presidential election by Trump and his allies. The rejected petition was one of two filed by Trump’s legal team in separate Georgia courts last week, both aimed at obstructing District Attorney Fani Willis’ inquiry into potential “coordinated attempts to unlawfully alter the outcome of the 2020 elections.”
Trump’s petition requested to disqualify Willis from the investigation and to suppress a report from the special grand jury that she employed to assist her investigation. The state Supreme Court, in a brief unanimous decision, stated that the relief Trump sought “is not the sort of relief that this Court affords, at least absent extraordinary circumstances that Petitioner has not shown are present here.” The court further noted that even if the request were procedurally correct, Trump has not demonstrated that he would be entitled to the relief he seeks.
Trump’s representative did not immediately comment on the matter. The District Attorney’s office also declined to provide a comment.
A comparable petition filed by Trump on Friday is still being considered by the Fulton County Superior Court. Both petitions requested a court order to prevent Willis “from introducing any evidence obtained via the special purpose grand jury process to a regular grand jury.”
Emily Kohrs, the foreperson of the special grand jury, revealed on “NBC Nightly News” in February that the grand jury had recommended the indictment of more than a dozen individuals, but their identities remain undisclosed.
Trump’s petition urged both courts to act urgently as Willis “has signaled that she will use the report – itself the product of a twisted and manipulated process — to secure an indictment against Petitioner within weeks, if not days.”
Trump submitted a similar petition to Fulton County Superior Court in March. Judge Robert McBurney, who has been overseeing the grand jury investigation, has not yet made a ruling on that submission.
Willis initiated her extensive investigation in January 2021. Trump has refuted any wrongdoing and has accused Willis, a Democrat, of conducting a politically driven “witch hunt.”
In her letters to local law enforcement agencies, Willis has suggested that she is likely to seek indictments in the first half of August.
