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Georgia Republicans are calling for an emergency legislative session to review the latest indictment against former President Donald Trump.
State Senator Colton Moore asked Governor Brian Kemp in a Thursday letter to call for a special session, urging him to bring Georgia legislators back to the state Capitol to investigate the Trump charges brought on by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Both Moore and Kemp are Republicans. Willis is a Democrat.
Citing the state constitution, Moore told Kemp that "an emergency exists in the in the affairs of the state, requiring a special session to be convened under [Article IV, Section II, Paragraph VII(b)], for all purposes, to include, without limitation, the review and response to the actions of Fani Willis."
"As a Georgia State Senator, I am officially calling for an emergency session to review the actions of Fani Willis," Moore said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, announcing his request. "America is under attack. I'm not going to sit back and watch as radical left prosecutors politically TARGET political opponents."
Trump and 18 co-defendants were indicted by a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, on Monday as part of Willis' years-long investigation into their efforts to overturn Trump's 2020 election loss in the state. The 41-count indictment relies on the use of Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which allows state prosecutors to bring a case against any association of individuals who are engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity towards a common purpose.
As the governor, Kemp has the authority to call for a special session of the State Legislature. Asked about Moore's letter, a spokesperson for the governor referred Newsweek to Kemp senior adviser Cody Hall's comments from earlier on Thursday, during which Hall said, "Where have I heard special session, changing decades-old law, and overturning constitutional precedent before? Oh right, prior to Republicans losing two Senate runoffs in January of 2021."
"What are people hoping to learn in the second kick of the election-losing mule?" Hall asked.
Former federal prosecutor and former elected state attorney Michael McAuliffe told Newsweek that Moore's attempts to convene a special session "reflect an ignorance of the justice system in order to justify using a political process to thwart an active criminal case.
"The criminal justice system has well-defined mechanisms for investigations and prosecutions including, among others, court supervision of grand juries (in Georgia, both investigative and charging grand juries), the threshold requirement of probable cause for indictments, discovery obligations for prosecutors, rules of evidence, and conviction only after a jury finds all the elements of a crime proven beyond a reasonable doubt," McAuliffe said. "All these protections, and more, apply to the Trump prosecution, like they do in any another felony criminal case."
He said that Moore's request to the governor ignores those constitutional protections already in place for Trump and his indicted associates.
Newsweek reached out to Moore via email for comment.
On Thursday, Moore circulated a petition calling on people to support a special session to investigate Willis to review her actions in the Trump probe and "determine if they warrant impeachment."
"We must strip all funding and, if appropriate, impeach Fani Willis," the Republican said. "I'm calling on patriots across America to join me in this fight."
Willis' office declined Newsweek's request for comment.
It's unclear if Kemp would convene a special session on the matter. The governor has vocally debunked Trump's claims that the 2020 election was stolen by election fraud and become a favorite target of Trump's for doing so.
The day after the indictment in Fulton County was announced, Kemp disputed a post that the former president made to Truth Social.
"The 2020 election in Georgia was not stolen. For nearly three years now, anyone with evidence of fraud has failed to come forward - under oath - and prove anything in a court of law. Our elections in Georgia are secure, accessible, and fair and will continue to be as long as I am governor," Kemp said in a Tuesday post on X. "The future of our country is at stake in 2024 and that must be our focus."
Update 08/17/23 2:03 p.m. ET This story was updated to reflect McAuliffe's title and include comment from Kemp's office.
Update 08/17/23 3:40 p.m. ET This story was updated to include comment from Willis' office.
About the writer
Katherine Fung is a Newsweek senior reporter based in New York City. She has covered U.S. politics and culture extensively. ... Read more