In her motion Monday, Willis asked that McBurney retain supervision of the matter and urged that Trump and Latham’s motions be dismissed or denied without holding a hearing.
Willis wrote that the arguments put forth in the motions fail to meet the “exacting standards” for disqualifying a prosecutor and they also fail to prove their claims that their own due process rights have been violated or that the grand jury process was “tainted” or the law governing it unconstitutional.
Trump and Latham “are not content to follow the ordinary course of the law,” Willis wrote.
“The State’s reply was primarily procedural in nature and failed to address several of the critical substantive issues which were discussed at length in our brief and exhibits,” Trump’s lawyers said in a statement, adding that they plan to ask the court for time to file a response.
A coalition of news organizations, including The Associated Press, also filed a motion Monday objecting to Trump’s request that the special grand jury report be “quashed and expunged from the record.”
“Not only is such a remedy unsupported by any legal basis, it would also be starkly at odds with the fundamental principles of this Nation and State,” the media lawyers argued. “The Report is a matter of the utmost public concern, and it should be released to the public in its entirety.”
Willis last month sent letters to local law enforcement leaders advising them to prepare for “heightened security” as she intends to announce charging decisions in the case between July 11 and Sept. 1. To secure an indictment, she needs to bring the case before a regular grand jury.
The Georgia investigation is one of several that threatens the former President as he campaigns to regain the White House in 2024. A Manhattan grand jury in March indicted him on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush-money payments to a porn actor during the 2016 presidential election. Meanwhile, federal grand juries in Washington are investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election and the potential mishandling of classified documents by Trump at his Florida estate.
And a federal jury in New York last week found Trump liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996, awarding her $5 million.
