Court Battles

Georgia prosecutor says more Trump associates could be subpoenaed in election probe

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, right, talks with a member of her team during proceedings to seat a special purpose grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, on Monday, May 2, 2022, to look into the actions of former President Donald Trump and his supporters who tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The hearing took place in Atlanta.

The Georgia district attorney who is probing whether former President Trump and his allies attempted to unlawfully influence the 2020 presidential election told NBC News on Wednesday that additional subpoenas are likely coming for those in Trump’s inner circle and associates.

When asked by NBC’s Blayne Alexander if the additional subpoenas would include Trump family members or former White House officials, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) declined to say but left open the possibility of subpoenaing the former president himself.

“We’ll just have to see where the investigation leads us,” Willis told the outlet. 

“I think that people thought that we came into this as some kind of game,” she continued. “This is not a game at all. What I am doing is very serious. It’s very important work. And we’re going to do our due diligence and making sure that we look at all aspects of the case.”

A grand jury issued a slew of subpoenas on Tuesday to seven people connected with Trump as part of the probe. 

The subpoenas included former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and several legal advisers connected with the Trump campaign: Kenneth Chesebro, John Eastman, Jenna Ellis, Cleta Mitchell and Jacki Deason. Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) also received a subpoena.

Graham’s legal team earlier on Wednesday said he would challenge his subpoena, calling the investigation “all politics” and a “fishing expedition.”

Willis rejected those allegations to NBC News, also promising to pause activity between the start of early voting and Election Day, if her work is still ongoing this fall, in order to avoid perceptions of partisan aims.

“What do I have to gain from these politics?” she said of Graham’s challenge. “It’s someone who doesn’t understand the seriousness of what we’re doing. I hope he’ll come and testify truthfully before the grand jury.”

The subpoena to Graham references two phone calls with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) following the 2020 election.

Raffensperger also appeared before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol in a public hearing last month.

He testified about a call with Trump in January 2021 in which the former president pressured Raffensperger to audit the election results in Fulton County and “find” 11,780 votes, the margin the former president needed to flip the state in 2020.