ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp has filed to quash his subpoena in the Fulton County special grand jury investigation of the effort by former President Donald Trump and his allies to subvert the 2020 election in Georgia.
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.
The governor's filing in Fulton County Superior Court on Wednesday notes there was an agreement for him to give voluntary testimony in late July. According to Kemp's attorneys, however, when they "asked reasonable questions of the DA's Office regarding the scope of that interview, the DA's Office unilaterally canceled the interview."
They say a subpoena was then issued on Aug. 4 to compel the governor's testimony.
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In addition to claiming executive privilege and sovereign immunity exemptions from the subpoena, the governor's filing argues his testimony before the special grand jury is "being pursued at this time for improper political purposes."
"Through delay and artificial deadlines, the DA's Office has engineered the Governor's interaction with the investigation to reach a crescendo in the middle of an election cycle," the filing states.
It later claims that "what began as an investigation into election interference has itself devolved into hits own mechanism of election interference" - meaning in the November race for governor between Kemp and Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams.
"This is particularly egregious when directed toward the State's highest executive, who is not accused of any wrongdoing and is occupied with the business of governing," the filing adds.
So far, Fulton County Judge Robert C. I. McBurney, who is overseeing the special grand jury proceedings, has been skeptical of privilege arguments from those seeking to avoid giving testimony.
Already he has denied several motions to quash subpoenas, including from Sen. Lindsey Graham and the group of so-called "alternate electors" who submitted illegitimate Electoral College votes on behalf of Trump in 2020.
Georgia Republican leaders, including Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger and Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan - who, like Kemp, opposed the efforts to have the election results reversed in 2020 - have already testified before the special grand jury.