MADRID, 31 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The superior judge of Fulton County, in Georgia, Robert McBurney, has dismissed this Monday the appeal of the lawyers of former US President Donald Trump against the investigation opened against him for interference in the result of the 2020 elections and has also rejected their petition to remove the prosecutor who is conducting the investigations.
It has also dismissed the request of Cathy Latham – one of the supposedly elected to the federal Electoral College by the Republican Party – to join the judicial process.
“Neither Trump nor Latham have grounds to file an appeal at this stage of the proceedings prior to a possible indictment (…) for the investigation of possible criminal interference in the 2020 general elections in Georgia,” the judge explained in a nine page note.
The judge acknowledges that “being the subject of a criminal investigation heavily covered in the media can be uncomfortable (…), no court has so far ruled that this circumstance can justify an intervention or paralyze the investigation.”
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will present the case to a grand jury on September 1 and could indict Trump on racketeering and conspiracy. The former president’s lawyers had asked to remove Willis for the public comments made and had questioned the dubious constitutionality of the figure of the grand juries.
“Trump and Latham will be able to challenge the constitutionality of the grand jury in general, the performance of this Special Grand Jury in particular (…), the continuity of the Fulton County prosecutor in this criminal investigation –if any– and the results of the work of this Special Grand Jury, but that time is not this and the place is not this either,” McBurney said.
As for Willis, McBurney has indicated that his performance “has been neither partisan nor personal, in stark contrast to the torrent of personal attacks from one of the plaintiffs,” referring to Trump.
Willis investigates petitions for voter fraud, perjury before state and local agencies, conspiracy, criminal organization, violation of an oath of office, and election-related threats.
