Former President Donald Trump’s legal team in Georgia is continuing its efforts to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from pursuing her 2020 election interference investigation, as possible indictments in the state loom.
In a new, 650-page filing in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Trump’s lawyers stepped up attacks on Willis, a Democrat. CNN has previously reported that Willis is considering bringing racketeering and conspiracy charges in connection with Trump and his allies’ efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. The district attorney’s office declined to comment.
In the filing, Trump’s lawyers argue that due to Willis’ “conflict of interest” as a political candidate, she should not be allowed to continue to pursue the case.
“The District Attorney personally retweeted requests for followers and campaign donations which referenced her prosecution of this investigation,” Trump’s attorneys argued in the lengthy petition.
Trump’s Georgia legal team filed a petition last week, asking the court to throw out the evidence collected during investigation, to disqualify Willis and to remove Judge Robert McBurney from presiding over the case.
Earlier this week, the Georgia Supreme Court dismissed a similar bid from Trump.
The Georgia Supreme Court said in a five-page opinion that Trump hadn’t demonstrated the “extraordinary circumstances” that would require their intervention to block state prosecutors from ever using that material in any future criminal or civil proceedings.
Additionally, an Atlanta Judicial Circuit judge has ordered Fulton County Superior Court judges, including McBurney, to recuse themselves from overseeing attempts by Trump to essentially shut down the Fulton County criminal probe.
The circuit judge ordered that the judges in Georgia’s 7th District, which covers northwest Georgia, will now preside over the Trump vs. Willis petition. The order invited the newly appointed judges to arrange a courtroom in Fulton County “if necessary,” so it is still unclear where any future hearings on the case will be held.
Willis has indicated she plans to announce charges in August.
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