Rudy Giuliani is the target of a criminal investigation into possible illegal attempts by then-President Donald Trump and others to interfere in the 2020 general election in Georgia, prosecutors told lawyers for the former Nova mayor on Monday York.
The revelation that Giuliani, an outspoken Trump supporter, could face criminal charges from the investigation by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis brings the investigation closer to the former president. Willis has said he is considering calling Trump himself to testify before the special grand jury, and the former president has hired a criminal attorney in Atlanta.
Trump’s scrutiny of law enforcement has increased dramatically. Last week, the FBI searched his Florida home as part of its investigation into whether he brought classified White House records to Mar-a-Lago. He also faces a civil investigation in New York over allegations that his company, the Trump Organization, misled banks and tax authorities about the value of its assets. And the Justice Department is investigating the Jan. 6 uprising at the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, as well as efforts by him and his allies to overturn an election he falsely claimed was stolen. .
Giuliani, who spread false claims of voter fraud in Atlanta’s Fulton County while leading efforts to challenge the Georgia election, is due to testify Wednesday before a special grand jury that was formed at Willis’ request. Giuliani’s lawyer declined to say whether he would answer questions or decline.
Special prosecutor Nathan Wade alerted Giuliani’s team in Atlanta that he was a target of the investigation, Giuliani’s lawyer, Robert Costello, said Monday. News of the revelation was first reported by the New York Times. On a New York radio show on Monday, Giuliani said he had been serving as Trump’s lawyer in Georgia.
“Get that to a lawyer, we don’t have America anymore,” he said.
Earlier Monday, a federal judge said U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham must testify before a special grand jury. Prosecutors have said they want to question Graham about phone calls they say he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his staff in the weeks after the election. Willis’ investigation was spurred by a phone call between Trump and Raffensperger.
During that January 2021 conversation, Trump suggested that Raffensperger “find” the votes needed to reverse his narrow loss in the state. Last month, Willis filed motions to compel the testimony of seven Trump associates and advisers.
In seeking Giuliani’s testimony, Willis identified him as Trump’s personal attorney and as his campaign’s lead attorney. She 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 illegal ballots from unknown sources, out of sight of observers from electoral polls.
Within 24 hours of the December 3, 2020 hearing, Raffensperger’s office had denied the video. But Giuliani continued to make public statements and in subsequent legislative hearings claiming widespread vote fraud through the debunked video, Willis wrote.
Evidence shows the hearing and Giuliani’s testimony were “part of a multi-state scheme coordinated by the Trump campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere,” his petition says .
Two of the poll 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 Georgia legislative hearing on Dec. 3 where Giuliani appeared. In another hearing a week later, Giuliani said the footage showed women “sneaking through USB ports as if they were vials of heroin or cocaine.” They were actually passing out candy.
Willis also wrote in a petition seeking the testimony of attorney Kenneth Chesebro who worked with Giuliani to coordinate and carry out a plan for Georgia Republicans to serve as bogus electors. These 16 people signed a certificate falsely declaring that Trump had won the 2020 presidential election and claiming to be “duly elected and qualified” electors from the state even though Joe Biden had won the state and a list of Democratic voters.
All 16 of those bogus voters have received letters saying they are the target of the investigation, Willis said in a court filing last month.
As for Graham, lawyers for the South Carolina Republican have argued that his position as a US senator gives him immunity from having to appear before the court of inquiry. 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.
May last month rejected a similar attempt by U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., to avoid testifying before the special grand jury. Graham’s office said in a statement Monday that the senator disagrees with the judge’s interpretation of the provision of the Constitution that he believes protects him from being questioned by a state official. His lawyers have said he was making inquiries that were part of his legislative duties, related to vote certification and proposed election-related legislation.
But the judge wrote that this ignores “the fact that the people on the calls have publicly suggested that Senator Graham was not only engaging in legislative fact-finding, but that he was suggesting or implying that Georgia election officials change their processes or otherwise could alter the state’s results.”
In calls made shortly after the 2020 general election, Graham “questioned Raffensperger and his staff about reexamining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia to explore the possibility of a more favorable result for former President Donald Trump.” , Willis wrote in a petition.
Graham also “referred to allegations of widespread voter fraud in the November 2020 election in Georgia, consistent with public statements made by known Trump campaign affiliates,” he wrote.
Republican and Democratic state election officials across the country, courts and even Trump’s attorney general have found that there was insufficient evidence of voter fraud to affect the outcome of his loss in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump-allied lawmakers planned to challenge the tallies in several battleground states when Congress met on Jan. 6, 2021, to certify the results under the Election Count Act, but after the Capitol attack that day, Georgia’s account was never contested.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and called his call to Raffensperger “perfect.”