Washington The Georgia attorney general examining former President Donald Trump’s efforts to nullify the results of the 2020 state election is seeking to force several Trump allies, including Rudy Giuliani and Senator Lindsey Graham, to testify before the special grand jury investigating the scheme.
Fulton County District Attorney Fanny Willis petitioned the commission’s supervising judge to issue affidavits identifying Giuliani, Graham and others as material witnesses to the investigation, the first step in requiring courts in other states to compel witnesses to appear in Georgia. Conservative attorney John Eastman and analyst Jackie Deason have also been identified as material witnesses, as well as Trump attorneys Klitha Mitchell, Kenneth Chesbro and Gina Ellis.
The Atlanta newspaper first mentioned Move to force witnesses to testify. Testimonies indicate that witnesses will be asked to testify on July 12.
Requests by Giuliani and Graham’s spokesman for comment were not immediately responded to.
Certification of Giuliani’s designation as a material witness referred to his appearance at a Georgia State Senate hearing in December 2020. Giuliani, as Trump’s personal attorney, made allegations of voter fraud that were quickly debunked, yet he continued to repeat them publicly, the testimony said.
“There is evidence that the witness’s appearance and testimony at the hearing was part of a coordinated, multistate plan by the Trump campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 elections in Georgia and elsewhere,” the testimony said.
Graham’s testimony document indicates that he spoke to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Ravensberger shortly after the election. Graham questioned Secretary Ravensberger and his staff about re-examining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome “for Trump,” the testimony said.
Graham has acknowledged phone calls in the past and dismissed any allegations of wrongdoing, Saying “Face the Nation” In January he said he had “asked how the system worked when it came to voting by mail, and suffrage”.
President Biden won Georgia in 2020 by a narrow margin, and the state’s Republican election officials have repeatedly stated that allegations of widespread voter fraud are unfounded.
Trump pressured Ravensberger and other officials to “find” enough votes to win, according to a recording of a phone call between Trump and Ravensberger obtained by CBS News last year. During the call on January 2, 2021, the president said to Ravensberger, “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is more than we have. Because we won the state.”
It was a special grand jury disassembled In January at the request of the District Attorney Willis. The investigation includes contact between Ravensberger and Trump, and Secretary of State Kan called to testify Before the grand jury in June. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp also agreed to file a recorded statement under oath before a grand jury on July 25.
Kathryn Watson
