Attorneys for former President Trump filed a motion to quash the report of the Fulton County, Georgia special grand jury’s investigation into his efforts to overturn his narrow 2020 election loss in that state.
The motion, filed by attorneys Drew Findling, Jennifer Little and Marissa Goldberg, also seeks to “preclude the use of any evidence derived” from the report, and it asks that the office of District Attorney Fani Willis be disqualified from the case.
The filing asserts that state laws governing special grand juries “violate the principles of fundamental fairness and due process.” It also argues that Willis must be disqualified due to a conflict “exacerbated by instances of forensic misconduct and improper extrajudicial activity.”
The motion comes after Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney allowed a partial grand jury report to be released last month. Just six pages long, it did not detail whether the grand jury recommended criminal indictments related to interference in the state’s 2020 election. But the partial grand jury report did say jurors believed that at least some unnamed witnesses who testified in the inquiry may have committed perjury and should face indictment.
Days later, jury forewoman Emily Kohrs went public to say that the grand jury had recommended multiple indictments, adding it was “not a short list”—though she did not name names. However, when asked specifically about Trump, she said cryptically, “You won’t be too surprised.”
In Monday’s motion, Trump’s attorneys asserted that Judge McBurney “failed to protect the most basic procedural and substantive constitutional rights of all individuals discussed” by the special grand jury. It went on to argue that Kohrs’ public comments “violate notions of fundamental fairness and due process and taint any future grand jury pool.”
The attorneys’ 51-page filing, which includes 433 more pages of exhibits, also comes after five more members of the grand jury came forward to speak with the media, though none have revealed who they had recommended be criminally charged in the probe.
Wilis’ prosecution reportedly was sparked by Trump’s phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on January 2, 2021, during which the then-President pressured his fellow Republican, who recorded the call, saying, “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.”
One of the grand jury members interviewed by the Atlanta Journal Constitution did say that when the full report comes out, “it’s gonna be massive.”
A spokesperson from D.A. Willis’ office declined to comment on Monday.
