At the state-level, the Left has moved one step closer to the ultimate item on its political wish list: imprisoning Donald Trump and his allies.
A special grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, has now subpoenaed renowned members of President Trump’s team, such as his personal attorney (and former New York Mayor) Rudy Guiliani and U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).
Word of the summons came by way of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which reviewed copies of the subpoenas. Also subpoenaed were John Eastman, Cleta Mitchell, Kenneth Chesebro and Jenna Ellis — who all played roles in President Trump’s post-2020 effort to reverse alleged voter fraud.
Fulton Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney is overseeing the grand jury, and on July 5 signed the subpoenas, which needed his approval for the individuals residing out of state. The text of the subpoenas reads that each of the seven individuals summoned to testify is “a necessary and material witness” for the probe.
Fulton County prosecutors argue that Trump and his allies sought to illegally overturn a legitimate election. Among their grounds for demanding Giuliani testify before the 23-member grand jury is the fact that, in late 2020, he testified in front of Georgia lawmakers claiming there was significant voter fraud in the state — referring to video footage of ballots being counted at State Farm Arena in Atlanta as a “powerful smoking gun.”
Even after being challenged by the office of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Giuliani stood by his claim that Fulton County election workers pulled ballots out of “suitcases.” Giuliani’s testimony in Georgia, along with his general support for Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen, resulted in the New York appellate court suspending his law license.
Graham was put on the subpoena list due to calls he made to Raffensperger and his staffers in the wake of the 2020 election, asking the Georgia secretary of state to look into the legitimacy of absentee ballots in case doing so would yield better election results for Trump.
Eastman testified alongside Giuliani at the hearing with Georgia legislators, maintaining there was “more than enough” evidence of voter fraud to justify a plan by which the Republican-dominated Georgia Legislature would submit an alternate slate of electors to the Electoral College tally — a slate that would have gone for Trump instead of Biden.
The Journal-Constitution notes of the Fulton prosecutors’ rationale for subpoenaing some of the other Trump allies to receive summons:
[Kenneth] Chesebro worked with the leadership of the Georgia GOP to coordinate a slate of alternate Republican electors, according to his subpoena. The DA’s office said Chesebro drafted at least two memos in support of the plan and provided a template of documents to the party for its sham ceremony at the Georgia Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020.
[Cleta] Mitchell, a conservative lawyer based in Washington, D.C., advised Trump on the infamous Jan. 2, 2021, call that the Republican placed to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. During that conversation, in which Trump asked Raffensperger to “find” 11,780 votes, Mitchell aided Trump as he made unsubstantiated claims about Georgia’s elections.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, began this probe all the way back in February 2021, following the leak of the call between Trump and Raffensperger in which the former asked the Georgia elections official to investigate the election in case there was sufficient fraud to have affected the outcome of the race in the Peach State. Trump’s detractors painted the call as an attempt to thwart a legitimate election.
The special grand jury has authorization to meet until May 2023, by which time it must turn in a report saying whether or not it recommends charges against Trump and his associates. Nevertheless, the final word on whether to go ahead with charges belongs to Willis.
Thus far, Raffensperger and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr have appeared before the grand jury. Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican who received backlash from Trump supporters for refusing to call a special session of the Legislature to challenge the pro-Biden election results, is slated to provide a video statement to the grand jury this month.
If this ultimately leads to charges against Trump and his allies, it would be a dangerous precedent for law and order in America. Even the most benign calls to investigate fraud and verify the legitimacy of elections would be legally equated to sedition.
If that’s the case, Democrats (like Georgia fixture Stacey Abrams) should hope they never have grounds to call an election into question again.
