Clearly feeling the heat from yet another potential pending criminal indictment—this time, in Georgia—former President Donald Trump on Monday asked a judge to totally upend an Atlanta investigation that seeks to hold him accountable for trying to overturn state election results there in 2020.
Trump’s last-minute scramble hinges on the idea that he can’t get a fair trial now that so many Americans—potential jurors—have heard from Emily Kohrs, the overly excited grand jury foreperson who spoke to news outlets and dropped hints about oncoming indictments.
Kohrs’ comments “illuminate the lack of proper instruction and supervision over the grand jury relating to clear evidentiary matters which violates the notions of fundamental fairness and due process,” wrote Trump’s three lawyers, Drew Findling, Marissa Goldberg, and Jennifer Little.
Trump’s attempt follows the partial release in February of a special grand jury report, in which a panel of Georgians recommended that a local district attorney seek criminal charges against several people involved in the GOP effort to upend democratic principles.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis put together the special purpose grand jury as an initial step before presenting an actual criminal case before a grand jury that can indict Trump or anyone else involved in that scheme.
But in a Monday court filing, Trump’s legal defense team asked a judge to intervene by simply rejecting the report outright, preventing any other law enforcement effort from also using the evidence these special grand jurors gathered. That would include testimony from politicians and political operatives about how Trump sought to overturn the state election results and intimidate the state’s top elections official into going along with the plan.
In Monday’s legal memo, Trump’s team also asked that Willis “be disqualified from any further involvement in this matter.” For months, the former president has been accusing Willis, who is Black, of being a “racist” who is simply trying to take him down for political reasons.
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