ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia prosecutor investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally interfered in the state’s 2020 general election has informed 16 Republicans who served as fraudulent voters that they could face criminal charges.
They all signed an affidavit falsely declaring that then-President Trump had won the 2020 presidential election and declared themselves to be “duly elected and qualified” electors of the state, even though Joe Biden had won the state and the Democratic slate of electors was certified. Eleven of them filed a petition Tuesday to quash their subpoenas, calling them “unreasonable and oppressive.”
Also Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, agreed to file any challenges to a subpoena in the investigation either in state high court or in federal court in Georgia, according to court filings. He previously filed a motion in federal court in South Carolina trying to stop the subpoena from being issued to him there on behalf of prosecutors in Georgia.
Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis last year opened a criminal investigation “for attempting to influence the administration of the 2020 Georgia general election.” At her request, a special grand jury with subpoenas was convened in May. In court filings earlier this month, she alleged a “multi-state coordinated plan by the Trump campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 elections in Georgia and elsewhere.”
Willis’ office declined to comment Tuesday on the motion to quash the subpoenas.
An attorney from Willis’ office said in a filing Tuesday that each of the 16 people who signed the fake voter ID card received a letter saying they were targets of the investigation and that their testimony before a special grand jury was required.
In the motion to quash the subpoenas, attorneys for 11 of the bogus voters said that between mid-April and late June, Willis’ office told them they were considered witnesses and not subjects or targets of the investigation. For that reason, they agreed to voluntary interviews with the investigative team, the request said. Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Schafer and another of the mock voters appeared for interviews in late April.
On June 1, grand jury subpoenas were sent to all 11 of these bogus voters. And on June 28, the district attorney’s office told its attorneys for the first time that their clients were considered targets, not witnesses, the motion said.
On December 14, 2020, as Georgia’s official Democratic electors met to certify the state’s electoral votes for Biden, Republican mock electors also met to certify a set of electoral votes for Trump. They did so because there was a lawsuit challenging the election results pending at the time, and if a judge found that Trump actually won their ballot, it would stand, the motion said.
The district attorney’s office knew all of this and properly marked them as witnesses, prompting them to agree to voluntarily cooperate, the motion said.
“The sudden, unacceptable and public elevation of status of all eleven voter nominees improperly turned them from witnesses who voluntarily cooperated and prepared to testify at the Grand Jury into prosecuted entities,” the motion said. As a result, their attorneys advised them to invoke their federal and state rights protecting them against self-incrimination, and they “reluctantly” accepted that advice, the motion said.
Their attorneys argued that the change in target witness status was based on “an undue desire to force them to publicly invoke their rights as, at best, a publicity stunt.” Therefore, they should be excused from appearing before the special grand jury, the motion said.
The motion asks Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who is overseeing the special grand jury, to excuse the 11 voters from appearing before the panel. It also asked him to look into Willis’ actions, “showing the improper politicization of this investigative process.”
And it’s asking him to grant a motion filed Friday by state Sen. Bert Jones that seeks to remove Willis and her office from the investigation. Jones, who is the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, has argued that the investigation is politically motivated because Willis is an active supporter of his Democratic opponent. On Tuesday, McBurney scheduled a hearing for Thursday on that motion.
Willis’ office has said Jones’ claims are without merit, and a lawyer representing the office wrote Tuesday that Jones has not identified actions that indicate a political motivation.
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