Georgia Supreme Court tosses Trump attempt to challenge 2020 election investigation over vote call

Charging decision expected in August

Georgia’s Supreme Court on Monday dismissed an attempt from Donald Trump to shut down key parts of a probe from state officials investigating him for potential interference in the 2020 election.

The high court found in a unanimous ruling that the former president hadn’t shown the kind of “extraordinary circumstances” that would require the Georgia Supreme Court to intervene in the case and toss out key portions of evidence.

“(Trump) has not shown that this case presents one of those extremely rare circumstances in which this Court’s original jurisdiction should be invoked, and therefore, the petition is dismissed,” the ruling states.

Donald Trump has already been charged in New York and Florida (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The judges also were not persuaded by Mr Trump’s arguments that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be removed from the case.

On 11 July, a new set of grand jurors were sworn in for the long-running investigation who could potentially be the ones to approve an indictment against the former president.

Since February 2021, officials in Fulton County have been investigating the conduct of Mr Trump and his allies in the state during the hotly contested 2020 election, where Joe Biden narrowly carried the state.

The investigation has focused on an infamous 2 January, 2021, call Mr Trump placed to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, urging the top official to “find” enough votes for him to overturn his defeat in the state, but has expanded to cover a wide-ranging influence campaign Mr Trump and his allies exerted in Georgia.

Another key area of focus is a December 2020 plot, allegedly directed by Trump campaign officials and potentially the former president himself, to organize a slate of unauthorised Republican electors to cast the state’s Electoral College votes, rather than the Democratic slate Georgia voters had selected. The group of false electors included the chair of the Georgia GOP and Republican members of the state legislature. They’ve defended their efforts as a back-up in case the original election results were tossed out in court.

Mr Trump has denied wrongdoing.

Ms Willis has suggested a decision on charges against Mr Trump could come as soon as August.

Charges in Georgia would join the other unprecedented sanctions against the former president, including felony charges in New York for a hush money scheme involving a porn star and federal charges against Mr Trump for his alleged mishandling of classified documents.