Special counsel Nathan Wade notified Giuliani’s local attorney in Atlanta that the former New York mayor and Trump’s personal lawyer could face criminal charges, said another of Giuliani’s lawyers, Bob Costello. News of the revelation was first reported by the New York Times. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis opened the investigation last year, and a special judicial panel convened in May at her request. He acknowledged that he recognized him as Trump’s personal attorney and as the lead attorney for his re-election campaign. County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who oversees the special jury, ordered Giuliani to appear before the panel to testify Wednesday. Willis’ investigation was sparked by a phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. During that conversation in January 2021, Trump suggested that Raffensperger could “find” the votes needed to overturn his narrow loss in the state. It was also made clear that the district attorney is interested in the Georgia legislative committee hearings held in December 2020 where Giuliani appeared and spread false allegations of voter fraud in Atlanta’s Fulton County. Willis last month filed petitions seeking to compel the deposition of seven Trump associates and advisers. Because they don’t live in Georgia, he had to use a process that involves asking a judge in the states where they live to order them to appear. In a petition seeking Giuliani’s testimony, Willis wrote that he and others appeared at a state Senate committee meeting and presented a video that Giuliani said showed election officials producing “suitcases” of illegal ballots from unknown sources, outside the election observers. Within 24 hours of that December 3, 2020 hearing, Raffensperger’s office had debunked the video. But Giuliani continued to make statements in public and at subsequent legislative hearings alleging widespread voter fraud using the debunked video, Willis wrote. The evidence shows that Giuliani’s presence and testimony “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 report says. WATCHES | Search warrant unsealed for FBI raid on Trump residence:
Trump is under investigation for violations of the Espionage Act, FBI search warrant reveals
A US federal judge has unsealed the search warrant used at former US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The Justice Department released a short list of what FBI agents seized, which included 20 boxes of papers that could violate US espionage laws.
Another Trump ally called to testify
Also Monday, a federal judge said U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham must testify before a special grand jury in Atlanta investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies broke laws in trying to overturn his narrow loss in the state’s 2020 general election . Lawyers for Graham, a Republican, had argued that his position as a US senator gave him immunity from having to appear before the panel and asked the judge to quash his subpoena. But U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May wrote in an order Monday that immunities related to his role as a senator do not protect him from having to testify. Graham’s subpoena directs him to appear before a special grand jury on Aug. 23, but his office said Monday it plans to appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Prosecutors have said they want to question Graham about phone calls they say he made to Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger and his staff in the weeks after Trump’s election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Sen. Lindsey Graham appears with Trump during a February 2020 campaign rally in North Charleston, SC (Patrick Semansky/The Associated Press) Graham had argued that a provision of the Constitution provides absolute protection against a senator being questioned about legislative acts. However, the judge found that there are “significant areas of potential grand jury investigation” that fall outside the scope of that provision. The judge also rejected Graham’s argument that the principle of “sovereign immunity” protects a senator from being subpoenaed by a prosecutor. Graham also argued that Willis, a Democrat, had not shown the extraordinary circumstances necessary to compel a senior official to testify. But the judge disagreed, finding that Willis had shown “extraordinary circumstances and a special need” for Graham to testify on matters related to an alleged attempt to influence or disrupt the Georgia election. May, the judge, last month rejected a similar attempt by U.S. Rep. Jodi Hice to avoid testifying before the special grand jury. Former New York mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani had argued he could not travel to Atlanta to testify because of health problems, but Fulton County Judge McBurney ordered him to appear Wednesday. Graham’s office said in a statement Monday that the senator disagrees with the judge’s interpretation of the constitutional provision he believes protects him from questioning by a government official. His lawyers said he was making inquiries that were clearly part of his legislative duties, regarding vote certification and proposing election-related legislation. But the judge wrote that this ignores “the fact that the individuals on the calls publicly suggested that Senator Graham was not merely engaged in legislative fact-finding, but instead suggested or implied that Georgia election officials were changing their procedures or otherwise way they potentially changed the state’s results. “ In calls made shortly after the 2020 general election, Graham “asked Raffensperger and his staff about reviewing certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump,” he wrote Willis in a report. Graham “also cited allegations of widespread voter fraud in the November 2020 election in Georgia, according to public statements made by known Trump campaign associates,” he wrote. Republican and Democratic election officials across the country, courts and even Trump’s attorney general found there was no evidence of voter fraud sufficient to affect the outcome of his 2020 presidential election loss. Trump-allied lawmakers planned to challenge the tallies from several battleground states when Congress convened on Jan. 6, 2021, to certify the results under the Election Counting Act, but after the attack on Capitol Hill that day Georgia’s count was never contested. Trump denied any wrongdoing and called his call to Raffensperger “perfect.”
