Donald Trump spent the weekend having a meltdown about the prospect of being indicted by Manhattan prosecutors over his 2016 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. Obviously, those potential charges are probably at the top of his mind, given the strong likelihood that (1) they are actually coming and (2) may be coming this week. But unfortunately for the ex-president, an indictment in New York isn’t the only very real legal issue he is grappling with at the moment, as his lawyers made clear on Monday.
In a court filing, attorneys for Trump demanded the final report from the Fulton County special grand jury that investigated Trump and his allies’ attempt to overthrow the election be suppressed, claiming that the “results of the investigation cannot be relied upon and, therefore, must be suppressed given the constitutional violations.” In addition to arguing that Robert C.I. McBurney, the supervising judge in the case, “failed to protect the most basic procedural and substantive constitutional rights of all individuals discussed,” Trump’s lawyers also claimed that Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis engaged in “instances of forensic misconduct and improper extrajudicial activity,” and should be removed from the case.
It’s not hard to see why Team Trump is going to the ends of the earth to destroy the report generated by the special grand jury. While only a small excerpt was released in February, the jury made clear in its findings that (1) despite Trump’s claims, there absolutely was not “widespread fraud” in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election; and (2) that one or more people appear to have lied to the jury, which is, yes, a crime. As for its recommendations re: which individuals should be charged, jury forewoman Emily Kohrs told The New York Times last month it was “not a short list,” adding of whether or not Trump was on it: “You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science.” Speaking to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, another juror said of the group’s report: “A lot’s gonna come out sooner or late. And it’s gonna be massive. It’s gonna be massive.”
Trump’s legal team also claimed in its Monday filing that Kohrs had divulged the jury’s “deliberations” in her series of interviews, though Judge McBurney did not appear to see it that way. Legal experts told the Times they doubt her comments would have an impact on the case, noting that the special grand jury does not actually issue indictments, a job that would be left to a regular grand jury.
As for Willis, it’s not really at all surprising that Trump’s lawyers want her booted from the case, given that she appears prepared to actually hold the ex-president and his pals accountable for their actions. Per CNN:
“The reason that I am a fan of RICO is, I think jurors are very, very intelligent,” Willis said last year. “They want to know what happened. They want to make an accurate decision about someone’s life. And so RICO is a tool that allows a prosecutor’s office and law enforcement to tell the whole story.”
Bess Levin
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