Ex-prez pushes to block Georgia probe into 2020 elex meddling
Former President Donald Trump Monday filed court papers demanding an end to the Georgia investigation into his effort to overturn his loss in the presidential election in the Peach State.
Trump asked a judge to quash a grand jury report into the scheme and bar prosecutors from continuing the two-year-long probe that was launched after the then-president demanded that officials “find” just enough votes to allow him to overtake President Biden.
“[The probe] was conducted under an unconstitutional statute, through an illegal and unconstitutional process,” Trump lawyers wrote in a sweeping filing.
Trump also lashed out at Atlanta prosecutor Fani Willis for supposedly not taking into account his stature as a former president.
“[Willis] violated prosecutorial standards and acted with disregard for the gravity of the circumstances,” the filing said.
Willis is reportedly considering filing racketeering and conspiracy charges as well as election interference counts against Trump and several allies, after the grand jury apparently recommended charges in a lengthy report.
It is not clear why Trump filed the papers more than two years after the grand jury started its work and two months after it submitted its report.
A Fulton County, Ga., judge ruled the report can mostly remain under seal at least until a separate panel decides whether to hand up indictments.
Willis said last month that decisions are “imminent” about charging Trump and perhaps others in the sprawling case.
The probe was launched after Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 3, 2021, to demand that he “find” enough votes to give Trump the state.
It also included the effort by Trump allies to appoint a slate of fake electors to muddy the waters ahead of the Jan. 6 confirmation of Biden’s win by Congress.