ATLANTA (AP) – Georgia prosecutor investigating the conduct of former President Donald Trump and his allies after the 2020 election cites U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and other members of the Trump campaign legal team to testify before a grand special jury.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Tuesday filed a petition with the judge overseeing the grand jury as part of his investigation into what he alleges was “a multistate plan coordinated by the Trump campaign.” to influence the results of the November 2020 elections in Georgia and elsewhere. “
The move marks a major escalation in a case that could pose a serious legal challenge for the former president while he suspends another career in the White House. Although the grand special jury has already heard top state officials, Tuesday’s presentations are addressed directly to several of Trump’s closest allies and advisers, including Giuliani, who led the legal efforts of his campaign to cancel. the results of the elections.
“It obviously means the investigation is getting more intense because these are trusted advisors, people in the inner circle,” said Robert James, a former DeKalb County District Attorney who comes from Fulton.
The grand jury has been investigating whether Trump and others tried to intervene illegally in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia while desperately trying to cling to power after the victory of Democrat Joe Biden. Trump continues to insist that the election was stolen, although numerous federal and local officials, a long list of courts, former campaign staff and even Trump’s own attorney general have said there is no evidence of fraud. lega.
The investigation is independent of that being conducted by a congressional committee that has been examining the events surrounding the deadly insurgency at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, as well as the Justice Department investigation. Trump also faces other legal challenges, including in New York, where he, his son-in-law and his daughter Ivanka have agreed to answer questions under oath starting next week in the New York Attorney General’s civil investigation about their business practices.
The escalation comes when Trump is considering announcing a third presidential candidacy as early as this summer, as he seeks to divert attention from ongoing investigations and block support rather than a long list of other potential candidates, such as the governor. of Florida, Ron DeSantis, do. their own movements.
Willis, who took this unusual step of soliciting a special grand jury earlier this year, has confirmed that she and her team are investigating a January 2021 phone call in which Trump pushed Secretary of State Georgia’s Brad Raffensperger to “find” the votes needed for him to win the state. He said the team is also examining a November 2020 phone call between Graham and Raffensperger, the abrupt resignation of the U.S. attorney in Atlanta on Jan. 4, 2021, and comments made during the legislative committee hearings. December 2020 Georgia on elections. Raffensperger and other state officials have already testified before the grand special jury.
Willis also filed petitions for five other potential witnesses: attorneys Kenneth Chesebro, Cleta Mitchell, Jenna Ellis, John Eastman and Jacki Pick Deason. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney signed the applications, which are similar to the citations, and deemed them necessary for the investigation.
In the petition filed with the judge, Willis wrote that Graham, an ally of the former president, made at least two phone calls to Raffensperger and members of his staff during the weeks following the November 2020 election. Graham asked about re-examining certain ballots in absentia “in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump,” he wrote.
A Graham spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
At the request of Giuliani’s testimony, Willis identifies him as Trump’s personal lawyer and as “the main advocate of the legal efforts of the Trump campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 elections in Georgia and elsewhere.” .
As part of those efforts, he wrote, he and others presented to a subcommittee of the state Senate of Georgia a video recording of election workers that, according to Giuliani, showed them producing “suitcases” of illegal ballots. from unknown sources, out of the view of election poll observers.
Within 24 hours after the December 3, 2020 hearing, Raffensperger’s office had denied the video and said it had found that no electoral fraud had occurred in the arena. However, Giuliani continued to make statements to the public and in subsequent legislative hearings claiming widespread voting fraud through this denied video, Willis wrote.
“There is evidence that (Giuliani’s) appearance and testimony at the hearing was part of a multistate plan coordinated by the Trump campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 elections in Georgia and elsewhere.” says the request.
Giuliani’s lawyer, Bob Costello, said he had no comment and that his client had not received 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 a certificate approving the petition, said Danny Porter, a former district prosecutor in Georgia County. Gwinnett, in the suburbs of Atlanta. .
The next step is to hand over the petition to a prosecutor where the witness lives and notify the witness, who is entitled to a hearing. If the person objects to going to Georgia to testify, he must be able to prove that his testimony is not necessary or that it would be an undue hardship for him, Porter said.
In Georgia, large special juries are set up to investigate complex cases with a large number of witnesses and possible logistical concerns. They can force evidence and cite witnesses to cross-examine them, and unlike the usual grand juries, they can also cite the target of an investigation to appear before it.
When its investigation is complete, the special grand jury issues a final report and may recommend measures. It is then up to the district attorney to decide whether to sue a regular grand jury.
It is unclear exactly what charges Willis could eventually run against Trump or anyone else. In a letter he sent to senior state officials last year, he said he was investigating “possible violations of Georgia law prohibiting the application for election fraud, making false statements to state and local government bodies,” conspiracy, extortion, rape “. of oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to the administration of the elections ”.
Trump has denied having done anything wrong.
___
Colvin reported from New York.