Georgian officials are investigating Donald Trump and others attempted to illegally interfere in the 2020 state election
A New York ruling ordered Rudy Giuliani to appear next month before a special grand jury in Atlanta that is investigating whether Donald Trump and others tried to illegally interfere in Georgia’s 2020 general election.
New York Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber issued an order on July 3 ordering Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer and former New York City mayor, to appear before the special grand jury on Aug. 9 and any other date ordered by the Atlanta court.
Giuliani’s lawyer did not return a call and email seeking comment Wednesday.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis began her investigation early last year and in May a special grand jury was formed at her request. Earlier this month, he filed petitions to force seven Trump associates, including Giuliani, to testify.
Because they don’t live in Georgia, he had to use a procedure of asking for a trial in the state where they live to order them to appear.
Giuliani was summoned to a New York court on July 3 to explain why he was not issued a subpoena to testify in Atlanta but did not show up, Farber wrote in his order.
On Wednesday, in a court case, Willis informed the ruling about special jury oversight that Giuliani had received Farber’s latest order.
In Giuliani’s plea for testimony, Willis knew him as Trump’s lawyer and his campaign’s lead lawyer.
From those efforts, he wrote, he and others submitted to a Georgia State Senate subcommittee a video recording of election officials that Giuliani said showed them generating “suitcases” of illegal ballots from unknown sources, out of sight of election observers.
Within 24 hours of the Dec. 3, 2020, hearing, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger debunked the video and said he found there had been no voter fraud at the site.
Giuliani continued to make statements to the public and at upcoming legislative hearings, alleging widespread voter fraud in this discredited video, Willis wrote.
“There is evidence that [Giuliani’s] appearance and testimony at the hearing are part of a coordinated multistate plan through Trump’s crusade to influence the effects of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere,” the petition says.