SUBPOENAED: Giuliani and Sen. Graham ordered to testify before Georgia grand jury investigating Trump
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ probe into Donald Trump’s attempts to illegally overturn Georgia’s election results has heated up. A Georgia judge has ordered Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, and John Eastman, as well as Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), to testify before a special grand jury on July 12. Pro-Trump attorney and co-conspirator Kenneth Cheseboro has also been ordered to testify. According to the order obtained by 11Alive’s Joe Henke, Cheseboro is a “necessary and material” witness to the Fulton County DA’s investigation.
Just in – Fulton judge signed off on DA Fani Willis' request to seek testimony in special grand jury proceedings investigating Trump from campaign attorney Kenneth Chesebro. This is the 1st example we have of the DA requesting testimony from someone with the Trump campaign. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/1keVUeDkNm
— Joe Henke (@JoeHenke) July 5, 2022
Cheseboro is accused of working with the Georgia Republican state party chair and with disgraced former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to coordinate 16 fake electors to cast ballots for Trump instead of the rightful winner – Joe Biden. According to the orders, they participated in:
“Coordination and execution of a plan to have 16 individuals meet at the Georgia State Capitol on December 14, 2020 to cast purported electoral college votes in favor of former President Donald Trump, even though none of those 16 individuals had been ascertained as Georgia’s certified presidential electors by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.”
In the weeks following the election, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger received several calls – both from then-President Trump and from Sen. Graham. In a recorded call that lasted over an hour, Trump asked Raffensperger to “find” him 11,780 votes — exactly one more than he’d need to win the state over Biden. In his calls with Graham, Raffensperger believes the Senator suggested that he “toss” legally cast ballots.
Read Graham’s order here.
Emails between Cheseboro and John Eastman – architect of the plot to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to illegally overturn or stall the electoral count – were uncovered during the Jan. 6th investigation. In an email response to the Supreme Court rejection of two of Trump’s fraud cases and in the context of confidential reports that there was infighting among the Justices on how to proceed, Cheseboro wrote:
“The odds of action before Jan. 6 will become more favorable if the justices start to fear that there will be ‘wild’ chaos on Jan. 6 unless they rule by then, either way.”
Cheseboro insinuated that the only way for the Justices to “quell the chaos” would be to rule against them and accept the Supreme Court’s decision as the only legitimate one.
The orders for Cheseboro, Eastman, Giuliani, Ellis, former Oklahoma House Rep. Cleta Mitchell (R), and mega-Trump donor Doug Deason – will center around the fake elector scheme. Deason gave $1 million to the Trump campaign.
In addition to the Fulton County DA’s investigation, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, and Kenneth Cheseboro have been subpoenaed in a Justice Department probe. All the attorneys, except for Deason, have been subpoenaed by the Jan. 6th Select committee.
It’s reported that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Trump documentarian Alex Holder have also been subpoenaed to testify.
Original reporting by Jonathan Raymond and Jon Henke at 11Alive.
Follow Ty Ross on Twitter @cooltxchick
