Donald Trump Receives Georgia Blow as 4th Indictment 'On the Horizon'

A fourth indictment against Donald Trump is "officially on the horizon" according to a senior legal analyst, after a bid by the former president to block an investigation by Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis was thrown out of court.

Willis is looking into whether Trump broke the law in an alleged bid to overturn the 2020 presidential election result in Georgia. The investigation includes a call in which the former president allegedly asked the Georgia secretary of state to "find" enough votes to flip the state red.

Trump has already been indicted three times on charges related to claims he orchestrated the payment of hush money to a porn star ahead of the 2016 presidential election, mishandled classified documents, and broke the law attempting to reverse the 2020 election outcome. The former president has pled not guilty to all counts and denies any wrongdoing. Polling shows Trump is the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, meaning his legal battles could have a significant impact on who occupies the White House from January 2025 onwards.

In March, Trump's legal team launched a bid to partially neuter Willis' investigation, with a move to "preclude" state prosecuting agencies from using any evidence uncovered by the grand jury and blocking the district attorney from conducting further inquiries into election interference by the then president.

The motion was rejected by Superior Court Judge Robert C.I. McBurney in a court filing released on Monday, who said the "silencing" of the report is "not what either statutory or case law generally allows."

A civil lawsuit filed by Trump against Willis and Judge McBurney was then dismissed by James Schuster, a senior judge on the Superior Courts of Georgia.

Reacting to the news on Monday, Joyce Vance, an MSNBC legal analyst and former U.S. attorney, tweeted: "Trump's challenges to Fani Willis' ability to proceed in Georgia are dead. Judge Schuster dismisses Trump's mandamus petition with a tip of the hat to Judge McBurney's opinion. It looks like indictment no. 4 is officially on the horizon."

Newsweek has approached Donald Trump for comment via the press inquiry form on his official website.

Speaking to Atlanta network 11Alive last week, Willis said her office is "ready to go" with its ruling.

She said: "The work is accomplished. We've been working for two-and-a-half years. We're ready to go."

The Georgia investigation includes a phone call in which Trump reportedly contacted Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, and asked him to "find 11,780 votes" to turn the state away from Joe Biden.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the Georgia case. On Friday, he joked at a Republican dinner in Montgomery, Alabama, that a fourth indictment could help him electorally.

Trump said: "Any time they file an indictment, we go way up in the polls.

"We need one more indictment to close out this election. One more indictment and this election is closed out. Nobody has even a chance."