On Monday, the Georgia prosecutor retaliated against the former president’s attempt to remove her from the case and exclude some evidence.
The prosecutor is looking into whether Donald Trump and his friends broke any laws while trying to reverse his state’s 2020 election defeat.
In March, Trump’s Georgia legal team requested that the court throw out the special grand jury’s report and bar prosecutors from utilizing any information or testimony gleaned from the panel’s probe.
They also requested that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office not investigate or prosecute the case.
In a filing on Monday, Willis retaliated, claiming that the Trump move is “procedurally flawed” and raises “arguments that lack merit.”
Willis has looked at what Trump and others did after the 2020 election for over two years.
She made the extraordinary decision to request a special grand jury to assist the investigation last year, claiming that the panel’s subpoena power would enable her team to compel the testimony of witnesses who might not otherwise participate.
The special grand jury was established in May last year and disbanded in January after hearing from 75 witnesses and submitting a report with suggestions for Willis.
The foreperson of the panel stated that the special grand jury recommended charging many people, even though the majority of that report is currently secret due to a judge’s order.
The special grand jury, according to Trump attorneys Drew Findling, Jennifer Little, and Marissa Goldberg, “involved a constant lack of clarity as to the law, inconsistent applications of basic constitutional protections for individuals being brought before it, and a prosecutor’s office that was found to have an actual conflict, yet continued to pursue the investigation.”
They also requested that the Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who presided over the special grand jury, not hear their complaints.
Cathy Latham, one of 16 Georgia Republicans who gathered at the state Capitol on December 14, 2020, and signed a document claiming they were the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors and that Donald Trump had won the presidential election, joined Trump’s camp last month.
Willis requested McBurney maintain oversight of the case in her move on Monday and suggested that Trump and Latham’s motions be refused or dismissed without a hearing.
According to Willis, the arguments made in the motions fall short of the “exacting standards” required to remove a prosecutor from office.
They also fall short of substantiating the parties’ claims that their due process rights were violated, the grand jury process was “tainted,” or the law governing it was unconstitutional.
“Are not content to follow the ordinary course of the law,” Willis said of Trump and Latham.
“The State’s reply was primarily procedural in nature and failed to address several of the critical substantive issues which were discussed in length in our brief and exhibits,” Trump’s attorneys said.
A group of news organizations also filed a motion on Monday opposing Trump’s demand that the special grand jury report be “quashed and expunged from the record.” This group included The Associated Press.
The media attorneys claimed that such a remedy “is not only without any legal basis, but it would also be starkly at odds with the fundamental principles of this Nation and State.”
The Report should be publicly available in full since it is of the utmost public significance.
Willis wrote emails to local law enforcement officials last month warning them to expect “heightened security” as she planned to reveal her decision to press charges between July 11 and September 1.
She has to provide the evidence to get an indictment.
JOIN US ON WHAT'SAPP, TO GET INSTANT STATUS UPDATES AND BE IN THE KNOW.
CLICK HERE
