An emergency request filed by Rudy Giuliani seeks to postpone a Tuesday court-ordered appearance before a Georgia grand jury looking into the actions of the former president Donald Trump after losing the 2020 election.
Giuliani, a former mayor of New York City and Trump’s personal attorney, was one of the former president’s closest advisors as he attempted in vain to void the results of the elections in Georgia and other states.
Giuliani requested the postponement, citing two physicians as saying he was not approved for travel after an extensive operation.
Giuliani’s lawyer, Robert Costello, revealed to CBS News in July that early this summer, Giuliani had heart surgery and required two stents.
Fani Willis, the district attorney for Fulton County, said in a brief on Monday that her office had checked data indicating Giuliani bought tickets for flights in late July to Zurich, Switzerland, and Rome.
Additionally, Willis’ office submitted a tweet that purportedly showed Giuliani in New Hampshire on August 1 as an exhibit. Giuliani’s lawyers claimed in his petition that he arrived there in a vehicle.
Giuliani missed a hearing in New York City on July 13 when he would have had the chance to fight his subpoena, but the judge ordered him to appear before the special grand jury.
The special grand jury’s chief judge, Robert McBurney, will instead hear Giuliani’s emergency application on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m.
Under a Monday filing, a lawyer for Giuliani said that his client would be open to testifying before the special grand jury in situations that they feel would be more typical of a regular grand jury.
The lawyer, William Thomas Jr., wrote: “Mr. Giuliani would be willing to do so, in a room, alone, but with the freedom to leave the room and confer with counsel as needed – the exact same circumstances that would be present during a Grand Jury process.”
Early in July, Willis asked McBurney to provide a certificate stating that Giuliani is a significant witness in the case. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Republican, and other supporters of Donald Trump also received certificates.
Giuliani is listed as a significant witness as a result of his participation in a hearing before the Georgia state Senate in December 2020.
The district attorney said that despite his claims of voting fraud being promptly refuted while representing Trump personally, Giuliani persisted in repeating them in public.
The D.A.’s complaint said that there was proof the Witness’s attendance and testimony at the hearing were a part of a multi-state, coordinated scheme by the Trump Campaign to influence the outcome of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.
Georgia was narrowly won by President Biden in 2020, and Republican election officials there have frequently said and sworn under oath that claims of rampant voting fraud are unfounded.
According to a tape of a phone discussion between Trump and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that CBS News acquired last year, Trump put pressure on other officials, including Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, to “find” enough votes so he would win.
On January 2, 2021, the president spoke with Raffensperger and said: “I just want to accomplish this. I simply need to secure 11,780 votes, one more than we now have. since we took the state.”
Willis, the district attorney, requested the appointment of the special grand jury, which was done in January.
The conversation between Trump and Raffensperger, who was asked to appear before the grand jury in June, is part of the probe. Additionally, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp gave a grand jury a recorded sworn statement.