Trump asks courts to throw out evidence and disqualify DA in Georgia probe of 2020 election aftermath
Donald Trump is seeking a new court order to neutralize the Fulton County investigation into the former president’s conduct after he lost the 2020 election and to disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis from any related proceedings.
By Marshall Cohen
(CNN) — Donald Trump is seeking a new court order to essentially neutralize the Fulton County investigation into the former president’s conduct after he lost the 2020 election, as potential indictments loom in Georgia.
Trump’s lawyers filed petitions this week attempting to throw out the evidence collected last year by a special grand jury, banning prosecutors from presenting that material to a newly empaneled grand jury that has charging powers, and disqualifying District Attorney Fani Willis from any related proceedings.
Lawyers for Trump say letting the investigation proceed would lead to “a violation of his fundamental constitutional rights” while he “seeks his Party’s nomination for the Presidency of the United States.”
Trump’s lawyers filed the separate petitions with the Fulton County Superior Court as well as the Georgia Supreme Court, asking them to intervene with the ongoing grand jury process.
Willis, an elected Democrat, has indicated that final charging decisions could come as soon as next month.
Throughout the probe, Willis used a “special purpose grand jury” to hear evidence from 75 witnesses including Trump advisers, his former attorneys, White House aides and Georgia officials. But Trump’s lawyers argued that these special grand juries are themselves unconstitutional.
“A regular Fulton County grand jury could return an indictment any day that will have been based on a report and predicate investigative process that were wholly without authority,” Trump’s lawyers argued in their filing.
“It is one thing to indict a ham sandwich. To indict the mustard-stained napkin that it once sat on is quite another,” the lawyers wrote.
The former president has previously attempted – without success – to shut down the state-level investigation in Georgia, which has zeroed in on his efforts to overturn the results there in 2020.
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