The Georgia Supreme Court has dismissed a petition by former President Donald Trump that asked the court to scrap an investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Trump’s Georgia legal team filed the petitions on Friday and named Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who oversaw the special grand jury, as respondents, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Trump’s lawyers not only wanted the state Supreme Court to put a halt to the grand jury proceedings but also sought to prevent Willis from using any evidence obtained by the special grand jury, which heard testimony from almost 75 witnesses.
But the court dismissed the petition and ruled that Trump’s team had failed to present “extraordinary circumstances” that warranted its intervention.
The judges also said Trump “has not presented in his original petition either the facts or the law” necessary to warrant Willis’ disqualification.
The petition was filed in reaction to rumours that Willis plans to ask one of two recently seated grand juries to hand up an indictment over attempts to change the presidential vote total in the state.
Although Willis has not said who could be formally charged, Trump is reportedly expected to be one of the defendants.
In its ruling, Georgia Supreme Court justices said the normal course of action is for Trump’s legal team to file a petition first before a Fulton Superior Court judge, whose decision could then be appealed.
The order ruled that Trump cannot turn to the state’s highest court to try to “circumvent the ordinary channels for obtaining the relief he seeks without making some showing that he is being prevented fair access to those ordinary channels.”
You can read the ruling in the tweet below.