Trump's Legal Team Objects to Grand Jury Process
Trump's Legal Team Seeks to Throw Out Grand Jury Report
Donald Trump's attorneys have filed a motion to throw out a final report and evidence from a special grand jury in Georgia that had been investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election. The lawyers are also seeking to disqualify the Fulton County District Attorney's office from overseeing the investigation.
Trump's Attorneys Move to Quash Report
In a court filing, the attorneys for President Trump stated that the report from the special grand jury and all evidence from it must be quashed, “as it was conducted under an unconstitutional statute, through an illegal and unconstitutional process, and by a disqualified District Attorney's Office who violated prosecutorial standards and acted with disregard for the gravity of the circumstances and the constitutional rights of those involved.”
The motion is likely to be the first of many that Trump's legal team will take to fight against any potential charges he could face. So far, no one has been charged related to alleged interference in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
The motion to quash the special grand jury's work and disqualify the district attorney's office was filed in response to a long-running investigation being conducted by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, who is considering bringing racketeering and conspiracy charges against those involved.
Grand Jury Report
The wide-ranging objections by Trump’s attorneys cover a number of decisions made by the judge who oversaw the grand jury, the conduct of the Fulton County district attorney, and a variety of interviews last month conducted by the special grand jury's foreperson.
The special grand jury concluded its work in December, and a judge overseeing the panel made parts of the report public in February. After the partial report release, the foreperson of the panel went on a media tour where she implied that roughly a dozen individuals had been recommended for criminal charges.
Trump's Objections
Trump’s attorneys raised objections to several issues related to the special grand jury process, such as the series of interviews conducted by the foreperson and recent media interviews with anonymous members of the special grand jury. “The results of the investigation cannot be relied upon and, therefore, must be suppressed given the constitutional violations,” Trump’s attorneys argued in the filing.
The attorneys also raised objections with how Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney oversaw the grand jury and interviews he provided after the panel’s work concluded.
Judge's Comments
Trump’s team also argued that Willis’s office should have been disqualified from overseeing the case when it was blocked from investigating now-Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, an ally of Trump, and complained about media interviews Willis provided. “The Supervising Judge made inappropriate and prejudicial comments relating to the conduct under investigation as well as potential witnesses invocation of the Fifth Amendment,” Trump’s attorneys wrote, adding that McBurney “improperly applied the law and subsequently denied appellate review while knowing his application of the law in that manner had vast implications on the constitutionality of the investigation.”