ATLANTA — Update:
Attorneys for former President Donald Trump have filed to appeal a ruling that shot down their bid to disqualify Fulton County DA Fani Willis and fend off a potential Georgia indictment, according to court documents filed late Friday.
Trump is taking his appeal all the way to the Georgia Supreme Court.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney rejected a motion from Trump earlier this week that sought to derail the investigation and bury a special purpose grand jury report into alleged election interference.
McBurney ruled that Trump lacked standing to mount a legal challenge at the "pre-indictment" phase. Former Coffee County GOP chair and fake Trump elector Cathy Latham was part of the former president's motion.
"There will be a time and a forum in which Trump and Latham can raise their concerns about the constitutionality of the special purpose grand jury statutes, about the performance of this particular Special Purpose Grand Jury(and the judge supervising it), and about the propriety of allowing the Fulton County District Attorney to remain involved with whatever criminal prosecution -- if any -- results from the work of this Special Purpose Grand Jury," McBurney wrote. "That time is not now and that forum is not here."
The motion sat for months before McBurney issued his ruling. Trump's team filed a new petition against Willis and McBurney in hopes of getting a ruling faster.
A court hearing on the new petition was scheduled for Aug. 10, but Trump's attorneys will now drop the new case to focus on the appeal.
"(Trump) is now aware that his complaint of inaction has been satisfied," his attorneys said in a motion Thursday. "Although (Trump) does not agree with the Supervising Judge’s analysis or ruling, there are now other channels to seek judicial review of the underlying arguments. Specifically, (Trump) maintains that there needs to be appellate and/or additional review of the propriety of this special purpose grand jury and the ability of the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office to continue forward in this matter."
The state supreme court already shot down similar requests from Trump last month. The justices unanimously dismissed the case, ruling that the former president failed to prove the circumstances were extraordinary enough to warrant their interference when Fulton judges had yet to issue a ruling.
The justices also said Trump's motion was likely to fail if they heard it.
Indictments of Trump and his allies could come by Aug. 18, Willis previously told county leaders.
Read the full filing below:
Original story:
A judge has set an Aug. 10 hearing on a motion from Donald Trump as he aims to avoid an indictment in Georgia's 2020 election probe.
Judge Stephen Schuster of the Superior Court of Georgia signed an order Friday, ordering all sides to file legal briefs before Aug. 8 — around the same time a Fulton County grand jury is expected to announce its charging decision against the former president and his allies.
Schuster was assigned the case after all Fulton County Superior Court judges were recused. Trump filed the lawsuit against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney.
The order comes one week after Trump's attorneys — Drew Findling, Marissa Goldberg and Jennifer Little — renewed their attempts to end Willis' investigation before potential prosecutions begin. They seek to disqualify Willis and bury a special purpose grand jury report into potential election interference. While much of the report remains sealed, Trump's attorneys argue that no evidence from the document should be used by the district attorney's office or in future proceedings.
Former Georgia GOP chairman David Shafer and former Coffee County Republican chair Cathy Latham, two Republicans who served as Trump presidential electors in 2020, also joined Trump's efforts to derail the investigation earlier this week.
Shafer played a key role in the alternate elector plot where 16 Georgia Republicans signed Electoral College ballots falsely claiming that Trump won the election. Latham is involved in the alleged copying of election data in Coffee County.
“It also is an exceptionally unusual motion. The claims that are made are pretty extraordinary," Georgia State University Law Professor Anthony Michael Kreis said. "Given that, it’s likely to fail but even while the judge considers the motion, Willis may secure indictments before a ruling comes given the tight timeline she’s working with in mid-August. So, things are very unlikely to be derailed for both legal and practical reasons.”
A similar attempt was shot down by the Georgia Supreme Court earlier this month. Trump filed his initial motion to quash the jury's report in Fulton County Superior Court in March. In addition to seeking Willis' disqualification, Trump's team also wanted a judge other than McBurney to rule on their motion.
Attorneys representing the former president filed the lawsuit in part because the March motion never received a ruling. The lawsuit seeks to have Willis and McBurney comply with "the lawful duties of their offices" and "bar their further contortion of legal processes."
Willis has hinted that charging decisions will come sometime between July 31 and Aug. 18.
It's unclear which of the two current Fulton County grand juries will hear evidence in the election investigation. One of the juries meets on Monday and Tuesday, and the second meets on Thursday and Friday.
The special purpose grand jury report recommends at least a dozen indictments, jury foreperson Emily Kohrs told media outlets earlier this year.
11Alive's Zach Merchant contributed to this report.