ATLANTA — UPDATE: The hearing on the motion quash was held Thursday and Judge Robert C. I. McBurney will now consider whether and/or how Gov. Brian Kemp will testify before the Fulton County special grand jury examining 2020 election interference in Georgia.
Lawyers for the governor and in the Fulton County District Attorney's Office exchanged arguments over matters of executive privilege and sovereign immunity, which Kemp's counsel say entitle him to avoid giving testimony.
They have also argued the proceedings, and Kemp's involvement, could unfairly impact the November governor's race.
McBurney appeared possibly open to pushing the governor's testimony to after the election. He did not put forth a timeline for when he will issue an order on the motion.
In a separate matter Thursday, the judge denied for a second time a motion to dismiss DA Fani Willis from the cases of 11 Republican "alternate electors" who submitted illegitimate electoral college votes on behalf of former President Donald Trump in 2020. The 11 individuals have been informed they're targets of the special grand jury investigation and have attempted to argue their case should be tied to Georgia State Sen. Burt Jones, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor.
McBurney did dismiss Willis from Jones' case, because she had held a fundraiser for a lieutenant governor candidate during the Democratic primary for that race, who then won the race and is now Jones' opponent in November.
But the judge said the cases of the 11 other individuals are not "similarly situated" with Jones, and he wrote in a stern order that until they "can do more than parrot back language" from the Jones decision, "they should refrain from further petitions for disqualification."
Original story below
A new court filing in the Fulton County special grand jury investigation of 2020 election interference in Georgia provides the outlines of what the District Attorney's Office might be hoping to get out of testimony from Gov. Brian Kemp.
Gov. Kemp has filed a motion to quash his subpoena before the special grand jury, a matter that was held in court on Thursday before Judge Robert C. I. McBurney.
His arguments largely rest on claims of executive privilege and sovereign immunity exemptions from the subpoena. The new filing, submitted Tuesday, contains DA Fani Willis' arguments against those claims.
There is no indication the governor is implicated in the investigation - Kemp resisted the former president's pressure campaign to call for a special session of the Georgia legislature to reverse Trump's loss in 2020 and, in so doing, became the subject of some of Trump's most withering attacks.
Nonetheless, whether or not Kemp will testify in the Fulton County probe has become a contested matter, with his lawyers accusing Willis of using the investigation to politicize the November governor's race.
Willis, in her filing, argues instead that Kemp could provide a great range of information relevant to the special grand jury investigation.
"In his motion to quash (Kemp) admits only that he received 'many public entreaties by President Trump and others for him to use the power of the Governor's executive office to alter the administration of the 2020 election in any way,'" the filing notes.
The filing lists what it argues are several shortcomings with that:
- It "does not identify the 'others;'"
- It "does not identify the nature of the 'entreaties' he received and from whom;"
- It "does not identify in what way(s) it was suggested he alter the election;"
The filing goes on to highlight a rally in Perry, Georgia held by Trump last year. At that rally, Trump outlined some of his efforts to pressure Kemp on the Georgia election results - including his oft-stated desire in 2020 for a special session of the Georgia legislature to consider overturning the state's results.
The filing notes Trump, at the rally, said he called Kemp about a special session (though he appeared to misspeak at the rally, using the phrase "special election") and the governor said he was sorry and "cannot do it."
In relation to this, the filing lays out several lines of testimony Willis believe Kemp could provide:
- "...the existence of any evidence the Trump campaign or operatives provided to support their theory that Georgia's election was 'rigged;'"
- "...the identity of the people who attempted to communicate with him and whether they identified as representatives of Mr. Trump;"
- "...the number of times he received or made calls related to the Trump campaign's allegations and demands that he take action;"
- "...the specific contents of his phone conversations;"
- "...the contents of his telephone conversations with Mr. Trump;"
- "...whether Mr. Trump told (Kemp) that he 'got (Kemp) elected';"
- "...whether Mr. Trump specifically sought a 'special election' (editor's note: Trump likely meant session) or some other form or relief;"
- "....whether threats were made by Mr. Trump or others;"
- "...about his responses to Mr. Trump."
"No executive privilege applies to any of these areas of inquiry," the filing argues.
The filing also argues Kemp could possibly speak to phone calls South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham reportedly made about the election to Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger, and "any factual connections between the telephone calls to Secretary Raffensperger and telephone calls concerning relief being sought from (Kemp)."
All of this, Wilis argues, "is just the start of what may be revealed through (Kemp's) grand jury witness testimony."
She states "many more evidentiary avenues may be opened" in the course of testimony, calling Kemp "uniquely knowledgeable about the election interference matters being investigated by the grand jury since he was personally involved in the conversations at issue."
Her filing later adds that the court subpoenaed Kemp for several forms of documentary evidence, and that his office provided "more than 136,000 pages of documents in "apparent cooperation with the subpoena."
But, according to Willis, those documents include many items "not the least bit" relevant to the investigation - among them a packet of information on state employee benefits, a soil report for an engineering project, and "photographs of dogs apparently related to the purchase of protective canine vests."
You can watch the full hearing here.