ATLANTA (AP) — Rudy Giuliani will not appear as scheduled Tuesday before a special grand jury in Atlanta investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others tried to illegally interfere in Georgia’s 2020 general election , his lawyer said.
A judge last month ordered Giuliani, Trump’s 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 grand jury, had excused Giuliani for the day.
“Judge Robert McBurney excused him pending a hearing tomorrow on the motion to continue,” Costello wrote in a text message.
Nothing in publicly available court documents indicates that Giuliani has been excused from appearing, but McBurney has scheduled a hearing for 12:30 p.m. Tuesday to hear arguments on a legal appeal by Giuliani seeking to delay his appearance. In a court filing Monday, Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis asked the judge to deny Giuliani’s request for a delay and instruct him to appear before the special grand jury as ordered.
Willis began an investigation early last year, and a special grand jury with subpoenas was convened in May at her request.
Last month, she filed petitions to compel testimony from seven Trump advisers and associates, including Giuliani. Because they don’t live in Georgia, she had to use a process that involves a judge in the state they live in ordering them to appear.
New York Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber on July 13 issued an order ordering Giuliani to appear before a special grand jury on August 9 and on any other dates ordered by the court in Atlanta.
In a court filing, Giuliani’s attorney, William Thomas, is asking the judge to delay Giuliani’s appearance. He explained that Giuliani inadvertently missed a hearing before Farber because he was recovering from a medical procedure and subsequently learned that he had been ordered to appear in Atlanta.
On Aug. 2, a lawyer for Giuliani asked Willis’ office to delay his appearance because he was unable to travel due to a recent medical procedure, according to court documents. That request was denied after Willis’ team found evidence that he had traveled since his medical procedure.
Thomas wrote that a lawyer for Giuliani then explained to Willis’s team that he did not have permission to travel by plane, but Willis still refused to postpone his appearance.
In her court filing Monday, Willis wrote that her team obtained records showing that between July 19 and July 21, Giuliani bought numerous airline tickets, including tickets to Rome, Italy, and Zurich, Switzerland, for travel dates between 22 July and July 29. , the documentation says. If Giuliani is not cleared to travel by plane, she wrote, her team is offering to provide alternative modes of transportation, including a bus or train ticket.
Thomas wrote that Giuliani also offered to appear virtually, such as via Zoom.
“It is important to note here that Mr. Giuliani is in no way seeking to unduly delay or obstruct these proceedings or to avoid giving evidence or testimony that is not subject to a claim of confidentiality in this matter,” wrote Thomas, noting that Giuliani had appeared before the committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and testified for more than nine hours.
“Mr. Giuliani is willing to do the same here under terms that replicate a grand jury proceeding,” Thomas wrote.
In Giuliani’s deposition petition, Willis identified him as Trump’s personal attorney and a top lawyer on his campaign.
She 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 debunked the video and said it had determined there was no voter fraud at the site. However, Giuliani continued to make public statements and in subsequent legislative hearings alleging widespread voter fraud using this debunked video, Willis wrote.
The evidence showed 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 elections in Georgia and elsewhere,” the petition said.
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Tucker reported from Washington.
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