Georgia’s highest court

on

On Monday, former President Donald Trump rejected a request to prevent a prosecutor from prosecuting him for his actions in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously rejected a petition Trump’s lawyers filed last week asking the court to intervene. Trump’s legal team argued that Fulton County

District Attorney Dist. thoughtful

Fani Willis and her office should not be allowed to press charges and a special grand jury report that is part of the investigation should be thrown out.

Willis has been investigating since early 2021 whether Trump and his allies broke any laws as they attempted to reverse his narrow election loss in Georgia to Democrat Joe Biden. She proposed

That

she will likely file charges in a grand jury next month.

The state Supreme Court noted in its five-page ruling Monday that Trump has a similar petition pending in Fulton County Superior Court. The justices unanimously refused to overrule the lower court, writing that Trump does not show that he has been denied fair access to the court. regular channels.

Regarding Trump’s attempt to block prosecutors, the judges said his legal application lacked the facts or law necessary to disqualify Willis by this court at this time.

A spokesperson for Willis declined to comment. Trump attorney Drew Findling did not immediately respond to phone and text messages asking for comment.

Trump’s legal team previously acknowledged the duplicate filings were unusual but said they were necessary given the tight time frame. Two new standing grand juries sat last week, and one will likely hear the case.

Trump’s lawyers made similar requests in March in Fulton County Superior Court, asking Judge Robert McBurney, who oversaw the special grand jury, to step aside and let another judge hear the Trump team’s claims. McBurney kept the case and has yet to rule.

In their legal petition to the state Supreme Court, Trump’s lawyers argued

That

Stranded between the protracted inaction of the supervising judges and the impending indictment of the prosecutor, they had no choice but to ask the Supreme Court to intervene.

Willis opened her investigation shortly after Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in January 2021 and suggested that the state’s top election official could help him get the votes needed to reverse his election loss in the state.

The special grand jury, which lacked the authority to issue indictments, sat last May and ruled in January after hearing 75 witnesses and submitting a report with recommendations for Willis. While most of that report remains secret for now, the panel’s foreman has said without names that the special grand jury recommended that several people be charged.