The Georgia prosecutor investigating the conduct of former President Donald Trump and his allies after the 2020 election is subpoenaing US Sen. Lindsey Graham, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and other members of Trump's campaign legal team to testify before a special grand jury. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Tuesday filed petitions with the judge overseeing the special grand jury as part of her investigation into what she alleges was "a multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump Campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere," the AP reports.
The move marks a major escalation in a case that could pose a serious legal challenge to the former president as he weighs another White House run. While the special grand jury has already heard from top state officials, Tuesday's filings directly target several of Trump's closest allies and advisers, including Giuliani, who led his campaign's legal efforts to overturn the election results. "It means the investigation is obviously becoming more intense because those are trusted advisers, those are inner circle people," says Robert James, former district attorney in DeKalb County, which neighbors Fulton.
Willis also filed petitions for five other potential witnesses: lawyers Kenneth Chesebro, Cleta Mitchell, Jenna Ellis, John Eastman, and Jacki Pick Deason. The special grand jury has been investigating whether Trump and others illegally tried to meddle in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia as he desperately tried to cling to power after Joe Biden's victory. The investigation is separate from the congressional panel that has been examining the events surrounding the Capitol attack as well as the Department of Justice's own sprawling probe. (More Election 2020 stories.)
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