It’s all coming together for a possible Georgia indictment of Donald Trump for alleged 2020 election interference in the state. He just lost a motion to kill the case before it starts, as we enter the time in which Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has signaled Trump and others could be indicted in the Peach State.
Willis gave local law enforcement a heads-up in April to be on alert from July 11 to Sept. 1. More recently, she told the chief judge in Fulton County and other local officials, including the county's police chief and head of public safety, that she plans to have some of her staff work remotely in between July 31 and Aug. 18. Monday is the first of those dates that kick off the intensified watch for grand jury activity.
As for that latest motion Trump lost, the former president, joined by one of Georgia's so-called fake electors, wanted to kick Willis off the case, quash the special grand jury's report and stop prosecutors from using evidence that came from it. (Remember, the special grand jury was an investigative body, not one that could vote out charges — that’s the grand jury that’s getting underway now.)
Indeed, reading Judge Robert McBurney’s ruling on Monday, it wasn’t a close call that Trump should lose the motion.
When it came to challenging the case before even being charged, McBurney said it was premature, and that Trump and fake elector Cathleen Latham lacked legal standing. The judge noted that “no court ever has held” that being the subject or target of a criminal investigation “provides basis for the courts to interfere with or halt the investigation.”
The judge likewise made quick work of the attempt to kick Willis off the case, calling it a “bold request.” To succeed, there would need to be a conflict of interest or “forensic misconduct.” An example of true conflict would have been the prosecutor previously representing a defendant regarding the alleged crimes at issue. Forensic misconduct could entail improperly expressing a personal belief in the defendant’s guilt.
“None of that has happened — yet,” McBurney wrote, underscoring the losing motion's premature nature.
To be sure, if Trump's arguments are premature, then he could raise them if he's charged, though the tenor of McBurney’s opinion suggested skepticism of these arguments ever prevailing — at the very least, it’s a higher bar to win them than Trump has mustered so far.
At any rate, Willis has for now cleared yet another roadblock on her way to obtaining an indictment against Trump as her signaled timeline to obtain that indictment escalates. Meanwhile, Trump awaits another likely indictment from special counsel Jack Smith.