Former President Donald Trump, still riding high in polls showing him the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is facing yet another legal challenge in Georgia. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is finalizing her plans to announce charges against Trump for allegedly attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia.
However, Trump’s three Atlanta attorneys want Willis and the presiding Judge Robert McBurney removed from the case due to bias.
Furthermore, every Fulton County Superior Court judge recused themselves from the Trump challenge, leaving former Cobb County Senior Judge Stephen Schuster to render a decision on the removal request.
Schuster, described by colleagues as an old-line Democrat, is expected to hear the case on Friday Aug. 10 and he issued an order directing all parties to submit briefs no later than next Tuesday.
“Between the district attorney’s driving the process and the supervising judge’s inaction, (Trump) is at the mercy of state actors who have heretofore paid no regard to his rights — even his right to have his motion heard and ruled upon,” Trump’s attorneys argue in their motion. “Petitioner cannot sit on his hands while a prosecutor with a disqualifying personal interest uses unconstitutionally obtained evidence to drag him ultimately into a courtroom,” it added.
The latest court date comes right before the window for Willis’ planned August charging decision, which falls in the summer term of Fulton County grand juries. She has said he case is finalized, has called for no in-person proceedings at the county courthouse, and security preparations are already underway in anticipation of her charging decisions.
