The US state of Georgia is investigating alleged efforts by Donald Trump and his aides to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff has been ordered to testify in an inquiry on the alleged efforts of the former US president to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the US state of Georgia.
A South Carolina judge on Wednesday ordered Mark Meadows to testify in the investigation launched by the Fulton County District Attorney. Fani Willis early last year.
Meadows is one of them Famous associates and advisors of the former president that Willis’ testimony sought in her investigation into actions Trump and others took to overturn his loss to Joe Biden.
Because Meadows doesn’t live in Georgia, Willis had to use a process that involved having a judge where he lives in South Carolina order him to appear. She filed in August seeking to force his testimony.
Judge Robert McBurney of the Fulton County Superior Court, who is overseeing the special grand jury, signed the petition, confirming that Meadows was a “essential and important witness” to the investigation.
Judge Edward Miller of Circuit Court in Pickens County, South Carolina honored McBurney’s findings and ordered Meadows to testify, Willis spokesman Jeff DiSantis confirmed.
Meadows attorney James Bannister could not be immediately reached for comment.
Bannister argued in a court filing this week that Willis was trying to get his client to “disclose the contents of privileged communications with the President” – a reference to the powers of US presidents to keep certain types of internal communications within their administration secret.
Trump falsely claimed that the 2020 election was marred by widespread fraud – an allegation that he kept repeating and many of his supporters still believe.
A petition seeking Meadows’ testimony states that Meadows to be on the phone when Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in January 2021 and unsuccessfully urged him to “find” enough votes to reverse Biden’s win in the state.
Willis also wrote in the petition that Meadows attended a December 21, 2020 meeting at the White House with Trump and others “to discuss allegations of voter fraud and certifying electoral college votes from Georgia and other states”.
The next day, Willis wrote, Meadows made a “surprise visit” to Cobb County, just outside of Atlanta, where signature checks on absentee ballot envelopes were underway. He asked to observe the audit but was not allowed because it was not made public, the petition said.
For the past several months, US courts have had to gather testimony from former members of Trump’s internal team in the Georgia investigation. In August, Trump’s former personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani testified before a grand jury in a court-ordered Georgia investigation.
Earlier this week, US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas temporarily blocked the judge’s order asking Republicans to Senator Lindsey Grahama top Trump ally, to testify in the investigation.
Thomas adjourned the case on Monday to await further action from justice or the full Supreme Court at the request of Graham, who has argued that his Senate office protects him from having to do so. answer questions regarding his actions as part of the legislative process. .
Meanwhile, Trump also faces a number of other legal issues, including an investigation by the Ministry of Justice about his possible mishandling of classified documents.
A special committee of the National Assembly also issue a subpoena last week requested testimony from the former president during the investigation into the January 6, 2021 riots, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC.
Lawmakers say the former president was “at the center” of violence perpetrated by a mob of his supporters that day, but Trump has dismissed their investigation as politically motivated.
