- Giuliani defamation trial live updates: Election worker seeking ‘justice’ after false election claims ABC News
- Judge rebukes Giuliani over ‘defamatory’ comments he made about Georgia election workers during defamation damages trial CNN
- ‘Literal harassment’: Rudy Giuliani defamation trial begins in step towards accountability MSNBC
- Georgia election worker suing Rudy Giuliani tells jurors that his lies made her fear for her life Yahoo News
- Analysis | Giuliani’s wild reversal, and a contagious disrespect for the rule of law The Washington Post
Tag Archives: Giuliani
Broke Lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis Prove Trump Will Never Run Out of Marks to Con – The Daily Beast
- Broke Lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis Prove Trump Will Never Run Out of Marks to Con The Daily Beast
- Rudy Giuliani made desperate appeal to Trump to pay his legal bills in Mar-a-Lago meeting CNN
- Rudy Giuliani Can’t Pay His Bills After Hitching His Wagon to Trump’s Failed Election Coup Vanity Fair
- Trump indictment: Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani struggling under massive legal bills after defending Trump WABC-TV
- A distressed Rudy Giuliani made the hike all the way down to Mar-a-Lago to personally beg Trump to help pay off some of his legal bills, CNN reports Yahoo News
Trump news today: Giuliani and Lindell attend Trump’s new year party even as his own children skip it
What we know about Donald Trump’s tax returns
Rudy Giuliani and pillow maker Mike Lindell were some of the guests that rang in the New Year with former president Donald Trump.
The 45th president’s second-oldest son, Eric, and his wife, Lara, were present at the party, but it appears two of his children who were previously part of his political carer skipped the event.
His eldest son Donald Trump Jr and daughter Ivanka Trump were not seen at the party, according to The Palm Beach Post.
Mr Trump, who declared his 2024 White House candidacy in November, spoke briefly to the media as he and Melania Trump made their way into the ballroom.
The former president, who recently announced his White House candidacy, said he hoped the Russia-Ukraine war “will get straightened out very quickly” and called for “a strong border”.
“We also have to bring back the economy… with inflation destroying our country,” he added as he made his way to the ballroom.
His previous message to ring in 2023 wished a happy New Year to his political enemies, from “radical left Democrats” and “Marxist lunatics” to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and anti-Trump Republicans he claims are working to “destroy” the US.
ICYMI: Trump reportedly doesn’t trust ‘ultra MAGA’ Elise Stefanik
A profile on the rising Republican in The New York Times reports that third-ranking House Republican Elise Stefanik has earned a reputation for her diligence “in advancing the party’s message” and her “unabashedly transactional” relationships to gain support as she advances in the lower chamber of Congress.
But sources close to the former president told The Times that any stories casting her as a “potential running mate [to Trump] are regarded as clumsy plants by her own team, and inspire bemusement and mockery.”
“Trump liked her, they said, and liked watching her defend him. But even he didn’t trust her,” according to the report.
The Times chronicles the rapid evolution of Ms Stefanik, a staunch supporter of the former president, from a relative moderate to a prominent figure on the GOP’s far-right flank with a self-described “ultra-MAGA” agenda, adopting Mr Trump’s baseless narrative of election fraud and embracing conspiracy theories that appeal to a reactionary base.
Alex Woodward2 January 2023 08:00
ICYMI: Potential 2024 GOP presidential candidate slams Trump: ‘January 6 really disqualifies him’
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, who has not yet made a decision about entering the 2024 presidential race, says Trump is disqualified from office after the events of 6 January, 2021.
He told ABC’s This Week on 1 January that the Republican Party and Republican National Committee should “move beyond” Trump in 2024.
“I do not believe that Donald Trump should be the next president of the United States,” he said. “I think January 6 really disqualifies him for the future. And so we move beyond that.”
He said it would be a “mistake” for the RNC to force candidates to unify behind a singular candidate, if Trump ultimately wins the nomination.
“Let’s not put up obstacles to one unified party,” he said.
Alex Woodward2 January 2023 07:00
ICYMI: Tax returns dispute White House claims that Trump donated his salary during Covid
Donald Trump donated nothing to the Department of Health and Human Services during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, despite claiming publicly to have done so, his tax returns revealed on Friday.
The picture painted by the recently released documents is crystal clear: He claimed zero charitable donations throughout 2020, meaning that his tax burden was not reduced at all (at least in that regard). He would still go on to pay $0 in income tax for the year in total.
If his returns are accurate, they would directly contradict a statement made by his chief White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, in March of 2020.
Alex Woodward2 January 2023 06:00
ICYMI: Adam Kinzinger blames Kevin McCarthy for Trump’s political staying power and ‘crazy elements’ in GOP
Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on a House select committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol, blamed GOP leader Kevin McCarthy for giving Donald Trump a political lifeline after the insurrection, opening the door for “crazy elements” in the soon-to-be Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
“He is the reason Donald Trump is still a factor,” Mr Kinzinger told CNN on 1 January. “He is the reason that some of the crazy elements of the House still exist.”
Alex Woodward2 January 2023 05:00
ICYMI: Trump had foreign bank accounts in China, UK and Ireland as president and one year paid more foreign tax than US
The release of Trump’s tax records show that the former president had foreign bank accounts in China, the UK, Ireland and St Maarten during his presidency, and in his first year in the White House paid more foreign tax than US.
Alex Woodward2 January 2023 04:00
How did Trump get away with paying so little in taxes?
The sheer complexity of the former property mogul’s business empire means it will take time to pore over the nearly 6,000 pages of figures in detail but what is immediately clear is that he actively pursued legal but creative accounting strategies to ensure his federal tax contributions were kept as low as possible.
While Mr Trump paid $641,931 in federal income tax in 2015, he paid just $750 in 2016 and 2017 and none whatsoever in 2020.
He did pay almost $1m in 2018 and $133,445 in 2019 but, as a proportion of his earnings, those are small amounts.
The Independent’s Joe Sommerlad explains how he did it.
Alex Woodward2 January 2023 03:00
George Santos seemingly admitted to 2008 check fraud on social media, report says
George Santos is scheduled to take office this week as a newly elected Republican congressman from New York, joining a new GOP majority in the House of Representatives.
But he will be entering office facing a wave of allegations that he has fabricated a bulk of his resume and filled his profile with bogus claims about his life and career. Questions about his employment history, personal finances, allegations of fraud and whether he lied about the death of his own mother have only continued to mount in recent weeks.
One of these allegations includes a 2008 claim that Mr Santos, then 19 years old, stole a checkbook and was charged with making fraudulent purchases in Brazil.
Alex Woodward2 January 2023 02:00
What we know about Trump’s tax returns
The Independent’s Eric Garcia breaks down some of the highlights from hundreds of pages of long-anticipated tax documents involving the former president.
We learned Trump did not make any charitable contributions in his final year as president, despite his pledge, had foreign bank accounts while in office, and claimed taxable income or losses in China, Israel, Canada and other foreign countries.
Alex Woodward2 January 2023 01:00
Statue of John Lewis to be erected where confederate obelisk once stood
A statue of the late congressman and prominent civil rights figure John Lewis will replace the space where a confederate monument once stood in Georgia.
A 16-ft-tall statue will be erected in the congressional district in Decatur that Lewis represented for 17 terms. Previously in that location, there was a Confederate Obelisk standing there for more than 100 years until it was removed in 2020.
Alex Woodward2 January 2023 00:00
ICYMI: Trump spent $1m bailing out Donald Jr’s failed business in 2018, new tax returns show
In 2010, Trump’s eldest son started Titan Atlas Manufacturing, which provided cast panels for prefabricated homes. But the company fell deeply into debt by 2017. That led to the former president setting up a company called D B Pace to take over.
The release of his tax returns show that the president suffered a $1m loss bailing out his son’s beleaguered venture.
Alex Woodward1 January 2023 23:00
Giuliani Russian Spy Pal Andrii Derkach Charged With Money Laundering – Rolling Stone
The Justice Department has charged a Russian spy who fed Rudy Giuliani bogus dirt on the Biden family with money laundering over his alleged attempt to secretly buy two luxury Beverly Hills condos.
Andrii Derkach, a Ukrainian member of parliament who the Trump administration accused of being “an active Russian agent for over a decade,” allegedly used a shell corporation to hide his ownership of the condos and move the $4 million used to buy them, according to a criminal complaint.
“While participating in a scripted Russian disinformation campaign seeking to undermine U.S. institutions, Derkach simultaneously conspired to fraudulently benefit from a Western lifestyle for himself and his family in the United States,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael J. Driscoll said in a press release accompanying the charges.
The Trump administration sanctioned Derkach shortly before the 2020 election on the grounds that he was “an active Russian agent for over a decade” who had “waged a covert influence campaign centered on cultivating false and unsubstantiated narratives” to influence the presidential election.
Derkach featured prominently in efforts by Rudy Giuliani to spread bogus conspiracy theories that former Vice President Joe Biden pressuring Ukraine to commit to anti-corruption measures was a secret plot to quash a criminal investigation of Burisma, a Ukrainian company where Biden’s son, Hunter, served as a board member.
Giuliani publicly met with Derkach during a 2019 trip to Ukraine, where the then Trump lawyer was soliciting dirt about the Bidens in anticipation of the upcoming presidential election.
Derkach also cozied up to congressional Republicans by sending packages of alleged Biden dirt to Sens. Chuck Grassley, Ron Johnson, and then-Rep. Devin Nunes. U.S. intelligence and fellow lawmakers repeatedly warned lawmakers that Derkach had ties to Russian intelligence and was seeking to undermine the election, making some Republicans skittish about embracing the Ukrainian politician. But Giuliani was undeterred.
“The chance that Derkach is a Russian spy is no better than 50/50,” Giuliani himself admitted to The Daily Beast in an interview after the Trump administration sanctioned the Ukrainian oligarch.
Federal prosecutors in the U.S. charged Derkach with seven counts of money laundering, bank fraud, and sanctions evasion charges but he is unlikely to make an appearance in a U.S. court anytime soon. Derkach appears to have fled Ukraine following a series of criminal investigations of him by prosecutors and intelligence agencies in Kyiv earlier this year.
In June, Ukrainian intelligence claimed that Derkach was an agent of the Russian military’s intelligence service who had plotted with Moscow to use private security companies to assist with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In October, Ukraine’s anti-corruption court ordered the oligarch detained on charges that he accepted over half a million dollars in payments from Russian intelligence but noted that he remains a wanted fugitive.
Rudy Giuliani, a target in Atlanta probe into Trump 2020 election subversion scheme, to appear before grand jury
The indication that he is a target of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ probe marked an escalation of the investigation and raises questions about Trump’s criminal exposure in the probe. Willis’ office has also informed 16 Trump-supporting operatives who were presented fraudulently as presidential electors in 2020 that they are targets of her investigation, but the focus on Giuliani brings the investigation into Trump’s inner circle.
Bob Costello, an attorney for Giuliani, confirmed to CNN earlier this week that Giuliani will appear Wednesday before the special grand jury convened for the investigation, but Costello indicated that the former New York mayor would not necessarily be responsive to the questions he was asked.
“If they want to play hardball, we know how to play hardball,” Costello said.
Costello declined to say whether Giuliani would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, but suggested that Giuliani would not answer questions about his communications with Trump.
“If you think he’s going to talk to you about conversations he had with his client, you’re delusional,” Costello said. Everything, he says, “depends on the questions they ask.”
Other witnesses who have appeared before the grand jury have been asked to testify to Giuliani’s participation in 2020 hearings and meetings with Georgia lawmakers, where Giuliani pushed bogus claims about election fraud.
Among the potential crimes Willis is investigating is making false statements to state and local government bodies, as well as solicitation of election fraud, and conspiracy.
Investigators’ interest in Giuliani’s promotion of election-rigging claims to lawmakers
Of interest to the Atlanta investigators are hearings before Georgia lawmakers where Giuliani and other Trump allies promoted conspiracy theories about supposed 2020 election-rigging. At a December, 3, 2020, Georgia Senate subcommittee hearing, Giuliani played heavily edited video of Fulton County election workers, and he urged the legislators to appoint a slate of pro-Trump electors in disregard of the statewide results showing that Joe Biden had won. He also appeared virtually before a Georgia House committee to discuss alleged election irregularities on December 10, 2020.
Giuliani and other Trump allies appeared at another hearing before Georgia lawmakers on December 30, 2020, where he reiterated the false claims that the state’s election had been plagued by fraud.
His allegations have been debunked numerous state and federal officials. Among those pushing back have been Trump-appointed officials, including former Atlanta US Attorney Byung “Bjay” Pak, who confirmed to the US House January 6, 2021, investigation that the claims of election fraud put forward by Giuliani and others had been investigated by federal authorities and found to be not true.
Democratic lawmakers who have testified before the Fulton County grand jury were asked to recount their experience attending those hearings, with investigators signaling a focus on the unusual fashion in which the hearings had come together, lawmakers’ impressions of the information that was being shared and the suggestion that lawmakers pursue an alternate slate of electors.
Giuliani has decried Willis’ probe as “a political stunt” and a sign that “we’re starting to live in a fascist state.”
“As I recall correctly, I appeared in Georgia as attorney for Donald J. Trump, so I’m going to be prosecuted for what I did as an attorney,” he said on his podcast on Monday.
Multiple probes onto Trump’s election reversal schemes
For months, the public activity of the Fulton County probe made it appear as the most significant legal risk for Trump and his inner circle for their gambits to reverse his 2020 defeat. Only recently has it become clear that the US Justice Department is investigating the 2020 election-related conduct of Trump allies as well, but the targets of that investigation are not known.
Giuliani will be appearing before the Fulton County grand jury Wednesday having been subpoenaed in July. With his failure to appear at a New York court hearing challenging the subpoena, he was ordered by the New York judge to testify. Other Giuliani attempts to push off the appearance — including with a claim that recent heart surgery prevented him from traveling — were unsuccessful.
Other attorneys who represented Trump during the 2020 election have also sought to challenge subpoenas for testimony before the Fulton County grand jury.
CNN’s Sara Murray, Jason Morris and Gloria Borger contributed to this report.
Giuliani Told to Come to Georgia by Train, Bus or Uber
ATLANTA — Rudolph W. Giuliani, the lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump and a central figure in the investigation into election interference in Georgia, has been telling prosecutors that he cannot travel to the state to appear before a special grand jury because he is not healthy enough to fly.
But on Tuesday, a judge in Fulton County, Ga., said that Mr. Giuliani, who had two coronary heart stents implanted in early July, could travel from New York to Atlanta some other way, and tentatively ordered him to show up to deliver in-person testimony on Aug. 17.
“Mr. Giuliani is not cleared for air travel, A-I-R,” Judge Robert C.I. McBurney of Fulton County Superior Court said. “John Madden drove all over the country in his big bus, from stadium to stadium. So one thing we need to explore is whether Mr. Giuliani could get here without jeopardizing his recovery and his health. On a train, on a bus or Uber, or whatever it would be,” he said, adding, “New York is not close to Atlanta, but it’s not traveling from Fairbanks.”
In a hearing on Tuesday afternoon, the judge also told prosecutors they should let Mr. Giuliani, 78, know whether he was a target of the criminal investigation. The office of Fani T. Willis, the Atlanta-area district attorney, has already told at least 17 other people, including a pair of state senators and the head of the state Republican Party, that they are targets.
If Mr. Giuliani is considered to be a target, that could prompt him to invoke his Fifth Amendment right and decline to give testimony after potentially making a lengthy road trip. Letting Mr. Giuliani know in advance, the judge said, would give some clarity on “what impact that has on the extent of his time in front of the grand jury.”
Understand Georgia’s Trump Investigation
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Understand Georgia’s Trump Investigation
An immediate legal threat to Trump. Fani T. Willis, the Atlanta area district attorney, has been investigating whether former President Donald J. Trump and his allies interfered with the 2020 election in Georgia. The case could be one of the most perilous legal problems for Mr. Trump. Here’s what to know:
The judge also said he could reconsider the Aug. 17 date if Mr. Giuliani’s doctor produced a sufficiently compelling medical excuse.
William H. Thomas Jr., a lawyer for Mr. Giuliani, said in the hearing that his client would be open to a remote interview via Zoom. Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor working for the district attorney, said the office was not interested and preferred that Mr. Giuliani appear in person.
Mr. Giuliani’s role in the effort to reverse Mr. Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia is of interest to Fulton County prosecutors for a number of reasons. As part of the closed-door grand jury proceedings, they have questioned multiple witnesses about Mr. Giuliani’s appearances before a pair of state legislative panels after the 2020 vote, in which he made a number of false allegations of election fraud. Mr. Giuliani, the former New York mayor, also participated in a scheme to create slates of fake, pro-Trump presidential electors in a number of swing states. The convening of these electors in Georgia is another subject of Ms. Willis’s investigation.
Mr. Giuliani’s lawyers had sought to delay any in-person appearance in Atlanta and produced a doctor’s note this week advising him not to fly anywhere because of the stent procedure. Ms. Willis countered that Mr. Giuliani had recently traveled out of state to New Hampshire and had also purchased plane tickets to Europe.
Mr. Giuliani’s lawyers said that he had traveled out of state by car and that the plane tickets were purchased by the planners of a conference that was ultimately canceled. (“No such travel ever occurred,” Mr. Giuliani’s lawyers said in court documents.)
Judge McBurney said Mr. Giuliani had plenty of time to get from New York to Atlanta, suggesting that he could break up a 13-hour road trip into segments. “Maybe he goes down to Washington, as the first part, and reconnects with people there, and then travels another few hours.”
Giuliani Ordered to Testify in Georgia Criminal Investigation
A Georgia judge ordered Rudolph W. Giuliani to testify in Atlanta next month in an ongoing criminal investigation into election interference by former President Donald J. Trump and his advisers and allies, according to court filings released on Wednesday.
Some out-of-state witnesses in the case have gone to court to challenge subpoenas or other legal filings seeking to compel their testimony. But after Mr. Giuliani failed to show for a hearing last week in Manhattan, where the matter was to have been adjudicated, Judge Robert C. I. McBurney of the Superior Court of Fulton County ordered him to appear before a special grand jury in Atlanta on Aug. 9.
Mr. Giuliani, who spearheaded efforts to keep Mr. Trump in power as his personal lawyer, has emerged as a central figure in the Georgia criminal investigation into efforts to overturn Mr. Trump’s 2020 electoral loss in the state. Fani T. Willis, the prosecutor in Fulton County leading the investigation, has indicated that she is considering conspiracy or racketeering charges, which could take in a broad spectrum of people engaged in multiple efforts to sway the election results.
Her office worked with the office of Alvin Bragg, the district attorney in Manhattan, to secure Mr. Giuliani’s testimony, and she said in a statement that she was “grateful to the prosecutors and investigators” in Mr. Bragg’s office for their assistance.
Mr. Giuliani’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A special grand jury has been meeting regularly in Atlanta to hear testimony and review documents and videos that may shed light on the multipronged effort to put Georgia in Mr. Trump’s win column. Among the acts under consideration are an infamous postelection phone call that Mr. Trump made to Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, asking to “find” enough votes to secure his victory.
Mr. Giuliani appears to be of interest for a number of reasons, including his participation in a scheme to create slates of pro-Trump presidential electors in numerous states including Georgia. In court filings this week, it was revealed that all 16 pro-Trump electors in Georgia had been informed by the Fulton County District Attorney’s office that they could face charges.
Mr. Giuliani also appeared in person before two Georgia state legislative committees in December 2020, where he spent hours peddling false conspiracy theories about secret suitcases of Democratic ballots and corrupted voting machines. He told state legislators, “You cannot possibly certify Georgia in good faith.”
Legal experts have said that the Georgia investigation may prove to be particularly perilous for Mr. Trump and his allies. Though the grand jury proceedings are secret, a number of details have emerged in recent days that hint at the scope of the investigation. Among the pro-Trump electors who learned they could be indicted are David Shafer, the chair of the state Republican Party, and State Senator Burt Jones, the party’s nominee for lieutenant governor. Another Republican state senator, Brandon Beach, was also informed that he is a potential target.
Prosecutors are seeking testimony from Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally who also called Mr. Raffensperger, and Representative Jody Hice, a hard-right Georgia Republican who has embraced false narratives about election fraud in Georgia and who helped lead efforts in Congress to help keep Mr. Trump in power.
William K. Rashbaum and Jonah E. Bromwich contributed reporting.
Photo shows Rudy Giuliani being escorted from White House after ‘nuts’ Trump election conspiracist meeting
A top aide to Mark Meadows has shared with the January 6 committee a photo of her then-boss escorting Rudy Giuliani out of the White House after a contentious meeting with Donald Trump and West Wing officials.
The photo was part of accounts from Ms Hutchinson and others about an explosive meeting in the Oval Office and around the White House on 18 December, 2021, during which Mr Giuliani and Sidney Powell attempted along with Gen Mike Flynn to convince Mr Trump to seize voting machines and take his plans to overturn the election even further.
But the group clashed with the White House counsel and other attorneys for the White House who rejected their ideas as idiotic and not based in reality, while repeatedly pressing them for evidence of fraud that they did not have.
And according to Ms Hutchinson’s text message from that day, it ended with the former mayor being escorted from the presidential residence under Mr Meadows’s watchful eye to ensure he didn’t “wander” back to the Oval Office.
The meeting was rife with insults and accusations of disloyalty, according to multiple attendees and witnesses who testified on Tuesday. Ms Powell and her colleagues apparently pushed the president to name her a special counsel with the power to investigate election fraud, and to take other, drastic actions including seizing voting machines from states around the country.
Mark Meadows escorts Rudy Giuliani out of the White House
(Screenshot/PBS NewsHour)
Those ideas were rejected by Mr Cipollone and Eric Herschmann, a fellow White House attorney, who said they repeatedly pressed Ms Powell and Mr Giuliani for evidence of their claims.
The group responded with a “general disregard” for the importance of backing up one’s claims with facts, Mr Cipollone and Mr Herschmann testified.
The rumours that Mr Trump had considered assigning Ms Powell to the role of special counsel were previously reported; what was not known publicly was the extent to which White House legal experts fought back against the fringe members of Donald Trump’s inner circle who were pushing a wide and almost inconcievably-broad spectrum of election fraud conspiracies.
And it paints a picture of a White House in total disarray in its final weeks as Mr Giuliani, Mr Flynn and Ms Powell apparently made it all the way to a meeting with Donald Trump in the Oval Office without a single high-level staffer finding out before it happened.
Giuliani, Eastman, Graham among those subpoenaed in Georgia election probe
The subpoenas also cover a handful of the Trump campaign’s other former legal advisers, including John Eastman, Jenna Ellis, Cleta Mitchell and Kenneth Chesebro.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been leading the investigation digging into Trump’s actions in Georgia. Several state officials have already been subpoenaed and have appeared before the special grand jury.
But the latest raft of subpoenas marks a new phase, as the grand jury seeks testimony from witnesses who were members of Trump’s inner circle.
Willis has been investigating potential crimes including solicitation of election fraud, making false statements, conspiracy, racketeering and threats related to election administration. The special grand jury does not issue indictments but rather collects evidence and issues a report on whether Trump or any of his allies should face charges. If it recommends an indictment, Willis could then pursue an indictment from a regularly seated grand jury in Fulton County.
The special grand jury wants to hear from Graham because the Republican senator allegedly made two calls to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his staff in the wake of the 2020 election. According to court filings, Graham “questioned Secretary Raffensperger and his staff about reexamining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump.”
The filing also states that Graham brought up allegations of widespread voter fraud, which have been widely debunked. A spokesperson for Graham did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Giuliani is one of a handful of witnesses who were subpoenaed related to their appearance before Georgia state lawmakers in December 2020. During his early December appearance, Giuliani provided testimony, witnesses and so-called evidence that demonstrated voter fraud, according to court filings. Even after those allegations were investigated and disproven, Giuliani “made additional statements, both to the public and in subsequent legislative hearings, claiming widespread voter fraud in Georgia during the November 2020 election,” by re-upping the same previously debunked evidence, according to court filings.
“There is evidence that the Witness’s appearance and testimony at the hearing was part of a multi-state coordinated plan by the Trump Campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere,” according to court filings.
Bob Costello, Giuliani’s attorney, said his client has not yet received a subpoena and declined to comment further.
The grand jury also wants to hear from Ellis about her appearance before Georgia lawmakers peddling debunked election fraud claims, according to court filings. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Similarly, Willis’ team subpoenaed Jacki Pick Deason, whom court filings described as an attorney for the Trump campaign’s legal efforts. Deason presented heavily edited video before Georgia lawmakers in that December 2020 hearing that purportedly showed election workers producing “suitcases” of illegal ballots, according to court filings. That allegation was investigated by state election officials and quickly proven to be false.
Deason “possesses unique knowledge concerning communications between herself, the Trump campaign, and other known and unknown individuals involved in the multi-state, coordinated efforts to influence the results of the 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere,” according to the court filings.
Willis has also been scrutinizing the plot to try to put forth a fake slate of pro-Trump electors in Georgia. In the latest round of subpoenas, investigators signaled an interest in hearing from both Eastman and Chesebro for their alleged roles in pushing the fake elector plan.
Eastman testified before Georgia lawmakers in December 2020, during which “he advised lawmakers that they had both the lawful authority and a ‘duty’ to replace the Democratic Party’s slate of presidential electors,” and made unfounded claims of voter fraud, according to court filings. An attorney for Eastman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Chesebro allegedly coordinated with Georgia Republican Party and Trump campaign officials to help prepare the slate of fake electors. According to court documents, Chesebro provided a Microsoft Word template for Georgia Republicans to use in a December 2020 meeting where they cast their bogus Electoral College votes. Chesebro also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mitchell is of interest to the grand jury because she was on the now infamous call where Trump pressed Raffensperger to “find” the nearly 12,000 votes necessary for Trump to win in the Peach State, which he lost to Joe Biden. Mitchell also parroted claims of voter fraud on the call, the court filing noted. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This story has been updated with additional details.
Rudy Giuliani slapped: Video shows former NYC mayor slapped inside Staten Island supermarket, employee arrested
STATEN ISLAND, New York City (WABC) — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani spoke out on Monday after he was slapped on the back while grocery shopping over the weekend, in an incident that was caught on surveillance video.
A ShopRite employee, 39-year-old Daniel Gill, was arrested and initially charged with second-degree assault, a felony, although those charges were later downgraded.
Gill appeared in court Monday, wearing his ShopRite uniform, to face misdemeanor charges of third-degree assault, third-degree menacing, and second-degree harassment. He was released on his own recognizance by Judge Gerianne Abriano.
Police say Gill slapped Giuliani on the back while he was campaigning for his son, Andrew Giuliani, in the state’s gubernatorial race, handing out flyers at the store on Staten Island.
“I got hit as if a boulder hit me,” Giuliani said during his virtual press conference. “It knocked me forward a step or two. It didn’t knock me down, but it hurt tremendously.”
The former mayor said he really didn’t know what had hit him at the time, and he was shocked as he had campaigned there for himself, his son, and other colleagues some 500 times, maybe as many as 1,000, he estimated.
After the slap, Giuliani says the man kept swearing and ranting to him about “killing women,” and when he wouldn’t stop, he decided to call the police and have the man arrested.
“This has to stop,” he said. “It could have been much worse of course.”
According to prosecutors, Gill said, “What’s up scumbag?” after smacking Giuliani on his back.
The smack caused Giuliani “to stumble forward” and caused “redness, swelling and substantial pain to the back and left side of his body,” according to the complaint.
The defense said Gill has worked at the story for four years and had no intention of causing the former mayor any physical injury.
“The video is clear,” his attorney, Susan Platis, said. “The video is clear that this was just a tap on the back.”
Giuliani, 78, was not seriously injured and refused medical treatment.
“Innocent people are attacked in today’s New York all of the time,” Andrew Giuliani said in a statement. “This particular incident hit very close to home. The assault on my father, America’s Mayor, was over politics. We will not be intimidated by left-wing attacks. As governor, I will stand up for law and order so that New Yorkers feel safe again. This message has resonated with voters throughout my campaign, leading up to Tuesday’s primary.”
Andrew Giuliani plans to hold a 7:30 p.m. rally on Tuesday at the store where his father got slapped.
Gill, who did not talk to reporters other than to say, “Have a good day, everyone,” is due back in court on August 17.
The Legal Aid Society, which is representing Gill, issued the following statement:
“The charges facing Daniel Gill, who has no previous contact with the criminal legal system, are inconsistent with existing law. Our client merely patted Mr. Giuliani, who sustained nothing remotely resembling physical injuries, without malice to simply get his attention, as the video footage clearly showed. Mr. Gill was then followed and threatened by one of Mr. Giuliani’s associates who allegedly poked Mr. Gill in the chest and told him that he was going to be ‘locked up’. He was then needlessly held by the NYPD in custody for over 24 hours. Given Mr. Giuliani’s obsession with seeing his name in the press and his demonstrated propensity to distort the truth, we are happy to correct the record on exactly what occurred over the weekend on Staten Island.”
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