ATLANTA — Lawyers for former President Donald Trump on Wednesday asked a Fulton County judge to reconsider his decision to deny their request to respond to a District Attorney’s Office filing in the ongoing investigation into possible criminal meddling with the 2020 election.
In March, Trump’s legal team filed a motion to disqualify the DA’s office from the case and to quash the final report of and evidence obtained by a special purpose grand jury that investigated the issue. A lawyer for alternate GOP elector Cathy Latham, who is a target of the probe, later filed a motion to join Trump’s motion.
Because of Latham’s filing, Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney gave the DA’s office an additional two weeks to respond. After the DA’s May 1 response, which said Trump’s motion should be denied, Trump’s lawyers asked McBurney to give them a chance to respond.
But McBurney said that was unnecessary.
“To date, the Court has received well over 500 pages of briefing, argument and exhibits on the issues raised by former President Trump and Ms. Latham,” McBurney wrote. “That is plenty.”
In Wednesday’s filing, Trump’s lawyers noted that a coalition of media companies, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has filed a motion opposing Trump’s request to quash the special grand jury’s report. A group of former state and federal prosecutors similarly filed their own “friend of the court” brief in opposition.
“At this point, three different entities, only one of whom is a party to the matter, have filed briefs in opposition to President Trump’s initial motion,” said the filing by Trump’s lawyers, Jennifer Little, Drew Findling and Marissa Goldberg. “President Trump has not been given the opportunity to respond to one of them.”
The court “could ameliorate, though not fully cure, the harm to President Trump” by striking the briefs filed by the media companies and former prosecutors, the lawyers’ motion said. “(B)ut that would still leave the state’s response unrebutted.”
In a recent letter to Fulton’s chief judge and 20 other county officials, District Attorney Fani Willis suggested she may seek indictments in the case in early to mid-August.
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