Georgia Supreme Court Denies Trump Motion to Block Probe

ATLANTA—The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday denied a motion by Donald Trump’s lawyers to essentially shut down the criminal investigation into efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in the state.

In its five-page opinion, in which all justices concurred, the court wrote that Trump had “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 motion, filed last week with the state’s highest court, argued the Republican former president’s rights were violated by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is handling the probe, and the judge who oversaw the process. It sought to block Willis, a Democrat, from further investigating Trump and to prohibit her from using a report from an investigative grand jury that recommended unknown individuals face criminal charges.

The dismissal is a legal win for Willis, whose office can proceed with presenting the case to a grand jury. A Willis spokesman declined to comment on the dismissal.

A Trump spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump and his supporters have repeatedly denied wrongdoing and attacked her investigation as partisan.

Trump’s motion came weeks before Willis is expected to announce criminal charges in the long-running investigation.

Trump’s legal team— Drew Findling, Marissa Goldberg and Jennifer Little—filed a similar motion in March before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney. He hasn’t yet ruled on the matter.

Willis, the elected district attorney for Georgia’s Fulton County, has been investigating alleged election interference by Trump and his allies for about two years. She said in April that she plans to announce charging decisions this summer, and has told local law enforcement leaders to prepare for the “significant public reaction” her announcement could trigger.

In May 2022, a special grand jury was assembled at Willis’s request. It issued a report in January detailing a yearlong investigation into possible election interference in the state’s 2020 presidential election.

That grand jury called 75 witnesses to testify, including prominent Republicans such as Rudy Giuliani and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. The special grand jury didn’t have authority to issue indictments, but in portions of its report that were released to the public, the grand jury stated that witnesses may have committed perjury.

In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Willis said her office was fair.

“Our office has very few cases that are no-billed,” she said, meaning a grand jury has declined to indict. She added later, “I refuse to fail.”

Write to Jan Wolfe at [email protected] and Cameron McWhirter at [email protected]