The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Special grand jury testimony picks up in Trump investigation
Inquiry expands as more officials disclose subpoenas.
Witness testimony resumed Tuesday at the Fulton County courthouse as part of District Attorney Fani Willis’ investigation of Georgia’s 2020 elections.
In-person meetings of the special purpose grand jury focused on the actions of former President Donald Trump and his allies had been delayed a week due to a logistical issue, according to a source with knowledge, but now the 23-person panel is making up for lost time.
Over the next several weeks the jury is expected to hear a blizzard of testimony from current and former aides to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whose appearances were originally scheduled for last week. It is scheduled to ques- tion Attorney General Chris Carr, several Democratic state legislators and at least two county-level elections officials from metro Atlanta.
But exactly who is coming in when is unclear. Spokes- men for the Fulton DA’S office and the Secretary of State’s office declined to comment. All grand jury testimony is designed to be secret.
Despite not knowing who was on the day’s schedule, several television crews waited on the courthouse steps Tuesday to see who might be walking in to give testimony.
There are several ways to get in and out of the build- ing without being seen, but Raffensperger was photographed two weeks ago walk- ing up the steps before testifying. No one who has testified so far has made themselves available for an interview with journalists.
Among the officials who were requested to appear this week are Erica Hamilton, the former Dekalb County elec- tions director who now works in Cobb, and Janine Eveler, Cobb County’s director of elections and registration, according to copies of their subpoenas obtained by The Atlanta Journal-constitution.
While Trump was mainly fixated on Fulton County as the vote count was underway in November 2020, he was deeply interested in Cobb, where an audit of 15,000 absentee ballots was conducted.
As recently as last fall, he pointed to Dekalb as the site of alleged widespread voter fraud. In a September letter to Raffensperger urging him to take the unprecedented step of decertifying Georgia’s election results, Trump alleged that 43,000 absentee ballots were in violation of Georgia’s chain of custody rule and were thus invalid, citing a report from the pro-trump site the Georgia Star News.
Meanwhile, state Rep. Bee Nguyen, D-atlanta, confirmed Tuesday she has received a subpoena to testify before the grand jury next week, just two days after her runoff for the Dem- ocratic nomination for secre- tary of state. She is a member of the state House Governmental Affairs Committee, which in December 2020 heard conspiracy-laden testimony from Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani about Georgia’s vote count, testimony that is of interest to prosecutors. At least two other Democrats who heard Giuliani’s testimony in front of another committee, state Sens. Jen Jordan and Elena Parent, confirmed they’ve been subpoenaed.
Demonstrating just how broad Willis is going with the investigation, prosecutors are also reportedly seek- ing testimony from Trevian Kutti, a former publicist for Kanye West and R. Kelly who last year allegedly pressured a Fulton County poll worker, CNN reported.
In January 2021, Kutti sh owed up at the Cobb County home of Ruby Free- man, a grandmother and Fulton elections worker who received death threats after Trump accused her of manipulating ballots at State Farm Arena. Election investiga- tions and publicly available videos showed no improprieties.
Kutti claimed to be a crisis manager sent by a “high-profile individual” and told Free- man to confess to commit- ting election fraud or risk being arrested, according to Reuters.
Among the state officials who could also testify as soon as this week are Deputy Sec- retary of State Gabe Sterling; Frances Watson, the former chief investigator for the secretary of state’s office; and Ryan Germany, the office’s general counsel.
Other legislators are expecting to receive subpoenas from the grand jury imminently. Many are likely to invoke legislative privilege and immunity — which shields members of the statehouse from most judicial scrutiny for actions carried out as part of their official duties — in an attempt to quash subpoenas.