Trump again moves to quash Georgia probe into election interference

Former President Trump made a second attempt to quash a Georgia investigation into his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state, filing a motion in the state’s supreme court and another court to bar the filing of any charges.

Trump had already filed a motion in March to quash the investigation of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney has not yet made a ruling on the matter but is named as a plaintiff in both suits, including one filed in the court where he serves as a judge.

“While an original petition in this court is disfavored, the extraordinary circumstances here justify it — particularly since petitioners every attempt to seek redress in the normal course have been ignored, and the District Attorney has given every indication that the injury is imminent,” Trump’s legal team wrote in the brief to the Georgia Supreme Court.

Willis notified the court staff that she anticipated the potential for charges during the new grand jury’s term, particularly the second or third week of August.

The filings, made late Thursday, were first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 

The newest motions aren’t substantially different from Trump’s May effort, again complaining of the work of an earlier grand jury and its final report, the most significant portions of which remain under seal.

“​​The District Attorney has signaled that she will use the report itself, the fruit of contorted and co-opted process to secure an indictment against Petitioner within weeks, if not days,” Trump’s attorney wrote.

Although the matter still sits before McBurney, Trump’s team suggests charges from Willis could come beforehand.

“Thus, stranded between the Supervising Judge’s protracted passivity and the District Attorney’s looming indictment, Petitioner has no meaningful option other than to seek this Court’s intervention,” they wrote.

Willis’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump’s March motion to quash was widely panned by legal experts, who said he had done little to show he had been injured by the grand jury process.

Some figures in Trump’s probe have been informed they are a target of the investigation, including his former attorney Rudy Giuliani and others who met to approve a fake electoral certificate deeming him the winner of the state. Trump does not appear to have been given any such notice.