Trump drops duplicate lawsuit to challenge election probe and Fulton DA

Caption

Barricades placed outside of the Fulton County Courthouse in anticipation of an indictment announcement in the 2020 presidential election probe.

Credit: Sarah Kallis, GPB News

Former President Donald Trump dropped a legal challenge against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and the special grand jury report. 

The voluntary dismissal comes days after Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney dismissed a similar challenge from Trump. 

The challenge was set to have a court hearing Aug. 10 in Cobb County before it was dropped.

Trump and his legal team dropped the challenge because it was duplicative of the challenge dismissed by McBurney, according to the dismissal document. 

Trump is now seeking an appeal of McBurney's decision instead. 

"Although the Petitioner does not agree with the Supervising Judge’s analysis or ruling, there are now other channels to seek judicial review of the underlying arguments," ," the dismissal document said. "Specifically, the Petitioner maintains that there needs to be appellate and/or additional review of the propriety of this special purpose grand jury and the ability of the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office to continue forward in this matter."

Trump's complaint sought to disqualify Willis and quash, or conceal, the special grand jury report from the public forever. Quashing the report would also prevent it from being used as evidence against him. 

Trump filed another challenge to the Georgia Supreme Court earlier this year, but it was dismissed by the court.

The requests were a long-shot effort to avoid prosecution in Fulton County for his efforts to interfere with the results of the 2020 presidential election.  

The primary focus of the investigation is Trump's phone call on Jan. 2, 2021, asking Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" 11,780 votes to help him win Georgia.

Criminal charges in the probe are expected to be announced this month.