Former President Donald Trump in new court filings Monday sought to block him and various allies from potential prosecution for crimes related to his efforts to reverse his loss to President Joe Biden in Georgia’s 2020 election.
Trump asked a judge to quash the report of a special grand jury in Atlanta, and to bar any evidence from that panel from being used to prosecute individuals.
His court filing also sought to disqualify the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, which has been conducting the criminal probe, from being involved in the case.
The Georgia investigation for two years has been considered a leading threat to end with criminal charges against Trump, the leading contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, who faces three other major pending criminal probes.
The Atlanta grand jury earlier this year finished hearing testimony and reviewing evidence submitted by prosecutors. The panel then recommended the filing of criminal charges against a number of people, who have not been publicly identified.
The probe is focused on Trump’s aggressive bid after Election Day 2020 to get Georgia election officials to toss out enough ballots cast for Biden to erase Biden’s victory in the state.
Georgia was one of several swing states won by Biden in the popular vote, which gave him his margin of victory over Trump in the Electoral College, the entity that actually selects U.S. presidents.
The grand jury focused particularly on a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call, during which Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” for Trump.
Trump’s 483-page court filing argues that the grand jury “was conducted under an unconstitutional statute, through an illegal and unconstitutional process.”
The filing also notes recent comments to media outlets by the grand jury’s forewoman, and later statements by other members of the panel, calling those statements evidence that “this grand jury was improperly supervised or, worse, improperly…
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