Rudy Giuliani is target of criminal investigation in Georgia election interference probe, his lawyers are told
Rudy Giuliani is reportedly a criminal target of Georgia prosecutors investigating former President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.
Special prosecutor Nathan Wade alerted Giuliani’s attorney in Atlanta that the former New York City mayor could face criminal charges, another Giuliani attorney, Bob Costello, said. News of the disclosure was first reported by The New York Times.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis opened the investigation last year, and a special grand jury was seated in May at her request. Giuliani had argued he couldn’t travel to Atlanta to testify because of health issues, but Fulton County Judge McBurney instructed him to appear on Wednesday.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani file (left) and then-President-elect Donald Trump (right) pose for photographs as Giuliani arrives at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster clubhouse in Bedminster, N.J. on Nov. 20, 2016. (Carolyn Kaster/)
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 workers producing “suitcases” of unlawful ballots from unknown sources, outside the view of election poll watchers.
Two of the election workers seen in the video, Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, said they faced relentless harassment online and in person after it was shown at a Dec. 3 Georgia legislative hearing where Giuliani appeared.
At another hearing a week later, Giuliani said the footage showed the women “surreptitiously passing around USB ports as if they are vials of heroin or cocaine.” They actually were passing a piece of candy.
Rudy Giuliani listens to testimony during a subcommittee of the state Senate judiciary committee meeting at the State Capitol in Atlanta on Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020. (BEN@BENGRAY.COM/)
Within 24 hours of that December 3, 2020 hearing, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office debunked the video. But, Willis wrote, Giuliani continued to make statements to the public and in subsequent legislative hearings claiming widespread voter fraud using the debunked video.
Willis also wrote in a petition seeking the testimony of attorney Kenneth Chesebro that he worked with Giuliani to coordinate and carry out a plan to have Georgia Republicans serve as fake electors. Those 16 people signed a certificate declaring falsely that Trump had won the 2020 presidential election and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors even though Joe Biden won the state and a slate of Democratic electors was certified.
Evidence shows that Giuliani’s hearing appearance and testimony “was part of a multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump Campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere,” the petition says.
Also Monday, a federal judge said Sen. Lindsey Graham must testify before a special grand jury in Atlanta that is investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies broke any laws while trying to overturn his narrow 2020 general election loss in the state.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) (Alex Brandon/)
Graham (R-S.C.) had argued that a provision of the Constitution provides absolute protection against a senator being questioned about legislative acts. But the judge found there are “considerable areas of potential grand jury inquiry” that fall outside that provision’s scope. The judge also rejected Graham’s argument that the principle of “sovereign immunity” protects a senator from being summoned by a state prosecutor.
In calls made shortly after the 2020 general election, Graham “questioned Raffensperger and his staff about reexamining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump,” Willis wrote in a petition.
Trump was caught on tape demanding Georgia’s Secretary of State “find” enough votes for him to overtake Biden in the tally.
The twice-impeached president has denied any wrongdoing and described his call to Raffensperger as “perfect.”
With News Wire Services
