The Fulton County prosecutor investigating post-2020 election actions by former President Donald Trump says Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s attempt to quash her subpoena is “wholly without merit” and that he can testify about a host of topics relevant to the special grand jury in Atlanta.
District Attorney Fani Willis also hinted that Mr. Kemp’s testimony and the grand jury’s work would be kept out of public view until after the midterm election cycle, during which the Republican governor faces a tough reelection fight against Democrat Stacey Abrams.
Mr. Kemp and his team say Ms. Willis’ subpoena should be quashed because it violates the governor’s “sovereign immunity” and seems timed for improper political purposes as Mr. Kemp faces the “crescendo” of his reelection battle.
In court papers filed Tuesday, Ms. Willis chastised Mr. Kemp’s team for alluding to political impropriety and outlined a menu of things the governor can talk about, including the contents of phone conversations with Mr. Trump and anyone else in his team, whether anyone threatened the governor after the election and if Mr. Trump sought a “special election” or some kind of other relief after complaining his Georgia loss to now-President Biden was due to fraud.
Mr. Kemp could also testify about the contents of phone conversations in the weeks after the election and if anyone in Mr. Trump’s world provided evidence of fraud.
“No executive privilege applies to any of these areas of inquiry,” Ms. Willis wrote in a court filing Tuesday.
She said Mr. Kemp’s testimony would remain secret and his entry and exit from the testimony could be “handled out of public sight, and consequently could not impact his election.”
Ms. Willis also said she will pause grand jury activity once Georgia early voting starts in October, a sign the inquiry might not reveal much until after the election.
She is interested in speaking to Mr. Kemp because Mr. Trump called him in December 2020 and allegedly pushed the governor to try to overturn Mr. Biden’s upset victory in the state.
More famously, Mr. Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and urged him to “find 11,780 votes,” or enough to overturn Mr. Trump’s loss.
Former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who served as Mr. Trump’s lawyer at the time, testified for several hours last week before the special grand jury, though it is unclear if he said anything of substance.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, is appealing a judge’s decision to order him to testify before the grand jury about phone calls he had with Georgia officials.
Meanwhile, Mr. Kemp’s attorneys have said they tried to get a sense of the scope of a planned July interview, only for Ms. Willis to cancel the session and issue the subpoena.
Ms. Willis has rejected any notion her scrutiny of GOP figures’ actions after the 2020 contest is anything but a sober legal probe.
“The District Attorney has repeatedly stated that this investigation is not a game,” Ms. Willis’ filing said in a rebuke of Mr. Kemp’s lawyers. “The fact that ‘gamesmanship’ may be a factor in the instant motion to quash is not a deterrent.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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