The Georgia prosecutor investigating possible interference in the 2020 election by then-President Donald Trump and his allies has requested no trials or in-person hearings be held at the Fulton County courthouse in early August — a sign of when a decision on charges could be announced.
In a letter Thursday to the chief judge of the courthouse, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said she plans on having 70% of her staff working remotely between July 31 and Aug. 18. Those who will remain in the courthouse at that time include the leadership staff and “all armed investigators,” according to the letter, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News.
“I respectfully request that judges not schedule trials and in person hearings during the weeks beginning Monday, August 7 and Monday, August 14,” it said.
Willis did not give a reason for the unusual request in the letter, which was first reported by The New York Times.
In a separate letter to local law enforcement last month, she said she’d “announce charging decisions resulting from the investigation my office has been conducting into possible criminal interference in the administration of Georgia’s 2020 general election” during the state Superior Court’s fourth term, which begins July 11 and ends Sept. 1.
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The special grand jury that Willis tapped last year to help investigate possible election interference by Trump and his allies recommended indicting more than a dozen people, Emily Kohrs, the jury foreperson, said on NBC News’ “Nightly News” in February.
“There are certainly names that you will recognize, yes. There are names also you might not recognize,” Kohrs added.
In the months since, a number of “fake electors” — people who signed a certificate falsely declaring that Trump had won Georgia in the 2020 election and themselves as the state’s official electors — have struck immunity deals with Willis’ office, according to court filings.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the case. His lawyers submitted a court filing in March arguing that all the evidence gathered by the grand jury should be deemed unconstitutional and that Willis should be “disqualified from further investigation and/or prosecution of this matter.”
In a response filed earlier this week, Willis’ office said Trump’s requests should be dismissed because they “lack merit.”
Trump’s lawyers then asked Tuesday for three weeks to reply to the DA’s response, a request Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney denied Friday.
“To date the Court has received well over five hundred pages of briefing, argument and exhibits on the issues raised by former President Trump,” he wrote. “That is plenty.”
McBurney said that if he needed any further information, he would ask for it.
A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
