Fulton DA given until May 1 to respond to Trump’s motion to quash report

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who has been investigating alleged election interference from Donald Trump for almost a year, has been ordered to respond by May 1 to the former president’s request to quash her special grand jury’s report.

The deadline was issued by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney Monday morning.

Scheduling Order by Lindsey Basye on Scribd

The request to quash the report - submitted last week by Trump’s Atlanta-based attorneys - requests the special grand jury’s findings also be expunged from the record; all evidence from the grand jury be suppressed as “unconstitutionally derived;” and the Fulton County District Attorney’s office be disqualified from any further investigation or prosecution.

Last month, the special grand jury report was partially released, with the majority of the grand jury believing one or more of the witnesses perjured themselves.

The report also said the special grand jury unanimously found no evidence of any widespread fraud in the election and recommended Willis seek the “appropriate indictments” for the unnamed perjuries.

Trump claims ‘total exoneration,’ special grand jury recommends perjury charges

Last year, Willis opened a criminal investigation “into attempts to influence the administration of the 2020 Georgia General Election.” Willis continues alleging Trump attempted to interfere in Georgia’s election, an election that saw Joe Biden become the first Democrat to win Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992.

A special grand jury with subpoena power was seated in May 2022 at Willis’ request. In court filings, she alleged “a multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump Campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.”

“The Grand Jury heard extensive testimony on the subject oft alleged election fraud from poll workers, investigators, technical experts, and State of Georgia employees and officials, as well as from persons still claiming that such fraud took place,” said the partial release of the grand jury report. “We find by unanimous vote that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning that election.”

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney decided to release only portions of the grand jury’s findings. Atlanta News First had requested, along with other media organizations, the grand jury’s full report to be made public. Willis had appealed to McBurney to keep the findings closed, but once McBurney’s decision was announced, Willis said she would not appeal his decision.

Atlanta News First requests public release of special grand jury report

Willis said the grand jury heard from 75 witnesses. Some of the more notable figures were Gov. Brian Kemp; Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr; Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger; former lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan; former White House official Mark Meadows; former U.S. House speaker and Georgia congressman Newt Gingrich; and Republican South Carolina U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Trump has accused Willis of conducting a “strictly political witch hunt.” Trump, who announced his 2024 White House candidacy last November, also continues defending his now-famous phone call with Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021.

Read: Full transcript of Donald Trump’s call to Brad Raffensperger

Last year, Raffensperger told a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that Trump’s claims of 2020 election fraud “were false.”

Raffensperger, along with Gabriel Sterling, the office’s chief operating officer, appeared before the Democrat-led House Select Committee’s nationally televised public hearings.

Raffensperger told the committee that the 2020 election went “remarkably smooth,” with average ballot-casting wait times between two to three minutes statewide. “I felt we had a successful election,” he said.

Trump’s legal team moves to quash Fulton county grand jury report. What legal implications could this have? Attorney Erica Wilson explains:

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Fulton County Superior Court Robert McBurney