New York Daily News

Ex-prez pushes to block Georgia probe into 2020 elex meddling

- Dave Goldiner

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.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States