A judge last month ordered Giuliani, a Trump lawyer and former New York mayor, to appear before a special grand jury on Tuesday. But Giuliani’s attorney, Robert Costello, told The Associated Press on Monday that Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who is overseeing the special jury, had excused Giuliani for the day. Nothing in publicly available court documents indicates that Giuliani has been excused from the appearance, but McBurney has scheduled a hearing for 12:30 p.m. Tuesday to hear arguments on a court filing by Giuliani seeking a delay his appearance. In a court filing Monday, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis asked the judge to deny Giuliani’s request for a delay and order him to appear before the special grand jury as ordered. Willis opened an investigation early last year, and a special judicial commission with subpoena power met in May at her request. Last month he filed petitions seeking to compel the deposition of seven Trump advisers and associates, including Giuliani. Because they don’t live in Georgia, he had to use a process that involves getting a judge in the state where they live to order them to appear. New York Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber issued an order on July 13 requiring Giuliani to appear before a grand jury on August 9 and any other dates ordered by the Atlanta court. Giuliani’s legal team last week asked Willis’ office to delay his appearance, saying he was unable to travel due to a medical procedure. That request was denied after Willis’ team found evidence on social media that he had traveled following his medical procedure. A lawyer for Giuliani then clarified to Willis’ team that Giuliani has not been cleared for air travel, but Willis refused to postpone his appearance, the motion states. In court Monday, Willis wrote that her team had obtained records showing that between July 19 and July 21, Giuliani purchased multiple airline tickets, including tickets to Rome, Italy, and Zurich, Switzerland, for travel dates between July 22 and July 29. Willis said her team offered to provide alternative transportation — including bus or train fare — if Giuliani was not cleared for air travel. Giuliani had also been offered to appear virtually, for example by Zoom, his motion says. “It is important to note here that Mr. Giuliani does not unreasonably seek to delay or obstruct these proceedings or to avoid giving evidence or testimony that is not subject to some claim of privilege in this matter,” the motion states, noting that the Giuliani had appeared before the committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol and testified for more than nine hours. “Mr. Giuliani is willing to do the same here under circumstances that duplicate a grand jury proceeding,” the motion reads. In Giuliani’s deposition application, Willis identified him as both Trump’s personal lawyer and his campaign’s lead lawyer. He wrote that he and others presented a Georgia state Senate subcommittee with video of election workers that Giuliani claimed showed them producing “suitcases” of illegal ballots from unknown sources, out of sight of election observers. Within 24 hours of that hearing on December 3, 2020, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office had debunked the video and said it had determined there was no voter fraud at the site. Nevertheless, Giuliani continued to make statements in public and at subsequent legislative hearings alleging widespread voter fraud using that debunked video, Willis wrote. The evidence shows that Giuliani’s appearance and testimony at the hearing “were part of a multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump Campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere,” the report says.
Tucker reported from Washington.
