ATLANTA (AP) — A decide in Colorado on Tuesday ordered a authorized adviser for former President Donald Trump’s marketing campaign to journey to Georgia to testify earlier than a particular grand jury that is wanting into whether or not Trump and others illegally tried to affect the 2020 election in Georgia.
Choose Gregory Lammons in Fort Collins, Colorado, made the choice after holding a listening to on a request from Fulton County District Lawyer Fani Willis to compel testimony from legal professional Jenna Ellis. Prosecutors are curious about Ellis’s function in serving to to coordinate and plan legislative hearings in Georgia and different states the place false allegations of election fraud have been pushed, in response to testimony in court docket.
Fulton County prosecutors have bought airplane tickets and made a resort reservation in preparation for Ellis to testify on Aug. 25.
The investigation, prompted by a January 2021 telephone name between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, started early final yr. Throughout that decision, Trump prompt Raffensperger might “discover” the votes to overturn his slender election loss within the state. It has turn into clear for the reason that particular grand jury was seated in Could that the main target of the investigation extends properly past that decision.
Willis final month filed petitions with the decide overseeing the particular grand jury looking for to compel testimony from seven Trump associates and advisers, together with Ellis, US Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and former New York main and Trump legal professional Rudy Giuliani. As a result of they do not stay in Georgia, she had to make use of a course of that entails getting a decide within the state the place they’re positioned to organize them to look earlier than the particular grand jury in Atlanta.
AP Photograph/Jacquelyn Martin, File
Giuliani, who’s been notified he is a goal of the investigation, is ready to testify earlier than the particular grand jury on Wednesday. Graham’s subpoena orders him to testify on Aug. 23, however he has mentioned he’ll enchantment a decide’s Monday order declining to quash his subpoena.
Within the petition looking for Ellis’s testimony, Willis recognized her as “an legal professional for the Trump Marketing campaign’s authorized efforts looking for to affect the outcomes of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.”
Ellis appeared with Giuliani at a Dec. 3, 2020, state Senate committee listening to on the Georgia Capitol throughout which false allegations of election fraud have been made, Willis wrote. She additionally wrote no less than two authorized memos to Trump and his attorneys advising that then-Vice President Mike Pence ought to “disregard licensed electoral faculty votes from Georgia and different purportedly ‘contested’ states” when Congress met to certify the election outcomes on Jan. 6, 2021, the petition says.
Proof reveals that Ellis’s actions have been “a part of a multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump Marketing campaign to affect the outcomes of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere,” Willis wrote.
Fulton County Superior Court docket Choose Robert McBurney, who’s overseeing the particular grand jury, signed off on Willis’s petitions to order Ellis and different Trump associates to testify. He issued so-called certificates of fabric witness stating that they’re “crucial and materials” witnesses for the particular grand jury investigation.
Lammons, the Colorado decide, heard arguments from Ellis’s lawyer, Michael Melito, and prosecutor Daybreak Downs, with the Larimer County district legal professional’s workplace in Colorado, in a listening to that was streamed on-line. Fulton County Deputy District Lawyer Will Wooten appeared by video convention from Atlanta as a witness to testify why Ellis’s look is critical.
Lammons discovered that there’s sufficient proof that Ellis is a cloth witness and there’s no proof that touring to Atlanta for someday of testimony can be an undue burden. He mentioned any problems with attorney-client privilege that Ellis might want to increase needs to be addressed by McBurney, the decide in Georgia.
The particular grand jury operates in secret and doesn’t have the ability to subject an indictment. As soon as its investigation is full, it should subject a report with suggestions. Willis will then must resolve whether or not to go to an everyday grand jury to hunt an indictment.