- The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously rejected former President Donald Trump’s long-running bid to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis.
- Trump’s lawyers had asked the court to overturn a special grand jury report that recommended criminal charges in Willis’ investigation into Georgia’s 2020 election.
- Willis has hinted that charges related to an investigation into possible attempts to interfere in President Joe Biden’s election victory could come in August.
Former US President and 2024 Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump makes a gesture about weightlifting while speaking at a Republican Party volunteer recruitment event at Calvary Chapel, Fervent, on July 8, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Patrick D. Fallen | Afp | Good pictures
The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday unanimously rejected former President Donald Trump’s long-running bid to overturn a special grand jury report that recommended criminal charges and disqualify District Attorney Fannie Willis in an investigation into Georgia’s 2020 election.
Judgment The indictment comes just weeks before Willis, the top Atlanta prosecutor who led the investigation into efforts by Trump and his allies to interfere with President Joe Biden’s election victory in the Beach State, sought an indictment from Georgia’s Supreme Court.
Trump’s lawyers have failed to show that the case is “one of the rarest of circumstances” that should avoid lower courts, the Supreme Court justices ruled. Therefore, the petition is dismissed.
Four days earlier, Trump’s lawyers acknowledged in their petition that the state Supreme Court’s acceptance of the case was highly unusual because it typically reviews appeals from lower courts. However, they argued that since Trump is a former president and 2024 presidential candidate, the high court should take up the matter.
Trump’s legal team filed a similar request in Fulton County Superior Court. In both the petitions, the lawyers argued that the evidence compiled by the special panel in the election inquiry was “illegally obtained”.
Judge Robert McBurney, who presided over the election hearing, asked the courts to quash the special panel’s final report and bar its contents from being used “in any future proceedings, civil or criminal.”
That special grand jury heard testimony and testimony from dozens of witnesses last year, but it does not have the authority to return indictments. That’s separate from two grand juries empaneled last week in Atlanta-area Superior Court, which may soon be tasked with deciding whether to indict Trump and his associates.
Trump’s lawyers did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment on the Supreme Court’s ruling.
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