ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia prosecutor investigating the conduct of former President Donald Trump and his allies after the 2020 election is calling on U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and other members of the Trump campaign’s legal team to testify before a special grand jury.
Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis filed petitions Tuesday with the judge overseeing the special grand jury as part of her investigation into what she alleges was a “coordinated multi-state plan by the Trump campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 Georgia and elsewhere.
The move marks a major escalation in a case that could pose a serious legal challenge for the former president as he considers another bid for the White House. Although the special grand jury has already heard from senior government officials, Tuesday’s documents took direct aim at several of Trump’s closest allies and advisers, including Giuliani, who led his campaign’s legal efforts to overturn the election results.
“That means the investigation is obviously getting more intense because these are trusted advisors, these are insiders,” said Robert James, a former district attorney in DeKalb County, which neighbors Fulton.
A special grand jury is investigating whether Trump and others illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia as he desperately tried to cling to power after Democrat Joe Biden’s victory. Trump continues to insist that the election was stolen, despite the fact that numerous federal and local officials, a long list of courts, senior former campaign officials and even Trump’s attorney general himself have said there is no evidence of the fraud he claims.
The investigation is separate from that being conducted by a congressional committee looking into the events surrounding the deadly riot at the US Capitol on January 6, as well as the Justice Department’s own burgeoning investigation. Trump also faces other legal challenges, including in New York, where he, his namesake and his daughter Ivanka have agreed to testify under oath early next week in the New York attorney general’s civil investigation into his business practices.
The escalation comes as Trump considers calling for a third presidential run as early as this summer as he tries to deflect attention from the ongoing investigations and lock in his support before a long list of other potential candidates emerge, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ own your moves.
Willis, who took the unusual step of requesting a special grand jury earlier this year, confirmed that she and her team are looking into a January 2021 phone call in which Trump had Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger “find” the votes , necessary for him to win the state. She said the team is also looking into a November 2020 phone call between Graham and Raffensperger, the sudden resignation of the U.S. attorney in Atlanta on Jan. 4, 2021, and comments made during Georgia legislative committee hearings in December 2020. about the elections. Raffensperger and other state officials have already testified before the special grand jury.
Willis also filed petitions for five other potential witnesses: attorneys Kenneth Chesebrough, Cleta Mitchell, Jenna Ellis, John Eastman and Jackie Peak Deason. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney signed the subpoena-like requests, deeming them necessary for the investigation.
In the petition filed with the judge, Willis wrote that Graham, a longtime ally of the former president, actually made at least two phone calls to Raffensperger and members of his staff in the weeks following the November 2020 election. During those calls, Graham asked about reviewing some absentee ballots “to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump,” she wrote.
A spokesman for Graham did not respond to a request for comment.
In Giuliani’s deposition petition, Willis identified him as Trump’s personal attorney and “lead counsel for the Trump campaign’s legal efforts to influence the results of the November 2020 elections in Georgia and elsewhere.”
As part of that effort, she wrote, he and others presented a Georgia state Senate subcommittee with video of election workers that Giuliani claimed showed them producing “suitcases” of illegal ballots from unknown sources, out of sight of observers. in the elections.
Within 24 hours of the Dec. 3, 2020 hearing, Raffensperger’s office debunked the video and said it had determined there was no voter fraud at the arena. However, Giuliani continued to make public statements and in subsequent legislative hearings alleging widespread voter fraud using this debunked video, Willis wrote.
“There is evidence that (Giuliani’s) appearance and testimony at the hearing were part of a multi-state coordinated plan by the Trump campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 elections in Georgia and elsewhere,” the petition said.
Giuliani’s attorney, Bob Costello, said he had no comment and that his client had not been served with a subpoena.
To compel the testimony of an out-of-state witness, a Georgia prosecutor must file a petition and then a judge must sign an affidavit approving the petition, said Danny Porter, a former longtime district attorney in Gwinnett County in suburban Atlanta.
The next step is to serve the application on a prosecutor wherever the witness lives and serve it on the witness who has the right to be heard. If the person objects to going to Georgia to testify, he must be able to show that either his testimony is not necessary or that it would be an undue hardship on him, Porter said.
In Georgia, grand juries are formed to investigate complex cases with large numbers of witnesses and potential logistical problems. They can subpoena evidence and call witnesses for cross-examination and, unlike ordinary jurors, they can also summon the subject of an investigation to appear before them.
When the investigation is complete, the special grand jury issues a final report and may recommend action. It is then up to the district attorney to decide whether to seek an indictment from a regular grand jury.
It’s unclear exactly what charges Willis might choose to bring against Trump or anyone else. In a letter she sent to top state officials last year, she said she was investigating “potential violations of Georgia law prohibiting solicitation of election fraud, making false statements to state and local government agencies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath and any involvement in violence or threats related to the administration of elections.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
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Colvin reported from New York.
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