President Donald Trump asked a Georgia state court on Wednesday to order prosecutors to reimburse him for more than $6.2 million in legal fees he said he spent on fighting criminal charges of interfering in the 2020 presidential election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. And two co-defendants, one with Gainesville connections, also want to be reimbursed.
Trump’s lawyers said in a filing that he is entitled to the fees under a law Georgia passed last year, after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified from prosecuting Trump and several of his allies. Prosecutors dropped the case filed in Superior Court of Fulton County in November.
“In accordance with Georgia law, President Trump has moved the Court to award reasonable attorney fees and costs incurred in his defense of the politically motivated, and now rightfully dismissed, case brought by disqualified DA Fani Willis,” Trump lawyer Steve Sadow said in a statement.
The Fulton County District Attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At least two other defendants — former Trump lawyers John Eastman and Robert Cheeley — have also asked the court to award them fees. Lawyers for Eastman and Cheeley did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Cheeley, the owner of a Gainesville restaurant at the time of he was charged, was trying to get state legislative leaders to call a special session of the legislature to certify a group of Trump-supporting alternate electors, according to his indictment. The plan was for that group to replace the slate of Democratic electors pledged to Joe Biden.
In all, he was accused in 10 of the 41 counts in the indictment, including racketeering, conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree, conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer, conspiracy to commit false public statements and writings, and perjury.
It is unclear if he still owns the restaurant or if it’s still in business. No website for it could be found during an Internet search Thursday morning.