Lawyers for Donald Trump filed petitions in two Georgia courts Friday seeking to shut down Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis's probe into whether the former president and his allies interfered in the state's 2020 presidential election.
The petitions filed in Georgia Supreme Court and Fulton County Superior Court seek to disqualify Willis from investigating Trump and to quash a report from the special grand jury she used to help her investigation. Trump is also seeking a court order barring Willis "from introducing any evidence obtained via the special purpose grand jury process to a regular grand jury."
The filings say time is of the essence. Willis "has signaled that she will use the report — itself the fruit of contorted and coopted process — to secure an indictment against Petitioner within weeks, if not days," the petition says.
The filings claim Willis, a Democrat, should be disqualified because she has a conflict of interest and that the special grand jury she called was given too much free rein, including by being allowed to call witnesses from out of state, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.. Graham resisted the panel's subpoena in court challenges, but the grand jury was eventually able to question him about a phone call he made to the state's top election official after the election.
In the high court petition, Trump said allowing the district attorney to proceed with her case could expose him to "reputational harm" through a "flagrant disregard for and violation of his fundamental constitutional rights" while he's running for president.
Willis' office declined comment on the petitions, which were first reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, while Trump's lawyers had no immediate comment.
The Friday filings are Trump's latest attempts to boot Willis and quash the grand jury report. He filed a similar petition back in March, which Judge Robert McBurney has yet to rule on. The new filings name both Willis and McBurney as a respondents.
"More than 100 days have passed since that filing, and the Supervising Judge has yet to rule," depriving them of time to file an appeal of any potentially adverse ruling, the filing complains.
Willis has said she plans to announce charging decisions stemming from her office's investigation into “possible criminal interference in the administration of Georgia’s 2020 general election” during the current Superior Court term, which began Tuesday and ends Sept. 1.
The Democratic district attorney began her sprawling investigation into whether Trump and his allies interfered in the state’s election process in January 2021.
She enlisted a special grand jury empowered to subpoena witnesses to assist in the probe last year. The panel recommended indicting more than a dozen people, its foreperson, Emily Kohrs, said on NBC’s “Nightly News” in February. The names have not been made public.
“There are certainly names that you will recognize, yes. There are names also you might not recognize,” Kohrs said at the time.
In letters to local officials, Willis has indicated that she could seek indictments in the case in the first half of August.
