ATLANTA — In a most recent court order, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney responded July 31 to former President Donald Trump’s motion to quash a Special Purpose Grand Jury’s report investigating alleged interference in Georgia’s 2020 general election. The SPGJ was put into place in 2022 by the Fulton County Superior Court.

Trump had filed the motion to quash the SPGJ report March 20, also requesting that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis be removed from investigating his involvement and disqualifying her office from any further investigations or potential prosecution for alleged interference. Willis plans to announce an indictment decision by Sept. 1.  A grand jury was selected July 11.

The motion seeking relief from the election interference probe was also joined April 28 by Cathleen Latham — one of the fake electors supporting Trump advanced by the Georgia Republican Party after the 2020 general election.

McBurney, however, denied the motion in his July 31 order.

“Former President Trump and alternate Elector Latham’s motions to preclude any State prosecuting agency from using evidence derived from the Special Purpose Grand Jury’s work are DISMISSED for lack of standing,” he said. “Their motions to quash (or expunge) the Final Report of the Special Purpose Grand Jury are DENIED as moot. And their motions to disqualify the District Attorney and her office are DENIED.”

The SPGJ earlier this year recommended indictments following its nine-month investigation interviewing 75 witness. The group looked into Trump’s phone calls with Georgia officials; more than a dozen Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate falsely declaring Trump as the winner; and the alleged copying of data and software from election equipment in Coffee County by a computer forensics team hired by Trump allies.

After months of no response from McBurney, Trump’s lawyers filed a petition to the Georgia Supreme Court against Willis and McBurney with claims made in his motion to the Fulton County Superior Court.

His lawyers claim that the SPGJ scheme in Georgia is so vague that it violates his constitutional rights to due process under the law, and that all evidence obtained by the SPGJ in the case is unlawful and should not be used in determinations of any potential grand jury criminal indictments.

And since he is running for election in 2024 for president the “unlawful” evidence could cause “irremediable reputational harm,” Trump’s Atlanta-based lawyers argued.

The Georgia Supreme Court responded July 17, choosing to allow the lower courts to first make a ruling, stating that the petition to the state’s high court is procedurally flawed.

“…this Court ‘has chosen to maintain its general status as an appellate court’ and to exercise its original jurisdiction only in extremely rare situations where need has been shown,” the Court stated. “And the Court has made clear that a petitioner cannot invoke this Court’s original jurisdiction as a way to circumvent the ordinary channels for obtaining the relief he seeks without making some showing that he is being prevented fair access to those ordinary channels.”

The Supreme Court order noted that Trump had not presented any facts or the law necessary to mandate Willis be removed in any and all proceedings involving him.

A July 20 order by Judge Ural Glanville of the Fifth Superior Court District of Georgia — a division of the superior courts that has jurisdiction over Fulton County/Atlanta — stated that all active judges of the Fulton County Superior Court Bench should be recused from the handling Trump’s petition against Willis and McBurney.

He assigned the case to the Seventh Judicial Administrative District “for the appointment of a judge who is not a member of the district” to preside over the case. The 7th district covers 14 counties in northwest Georgia, an area represented by avid Trump supporter Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Subsequently, Senior Superior Court Judge Stephen Schuster of the seventh district issued an order July 28 directing all parties to submit briefs no later than Aug. 8. A hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Aug. 10.