CNN reports, Rudy Giuliani told by prosecutors he is a target in Georgia 2020 presidential election probe:
Rudy Giuliani has been told by prosecutors in Georgia that he is a target of the special purpose grand jury investigating whether former President Donald Trump and his allies violated the law in their efforts to flip the 2020 election results in Georgia.
A prosecutor from the Fulton County District Attorney’s office called Giuliani’s Georgia counsel on Monday to inform him that Giuliani is now considered a target of their investigation, said Bob Costello, another attorney for Giuliani.
“This comes on the heels of us asking him probably six or seven times” whether Giuliani was a target, Costello said. He said the district attorney’s office previously declined to answer that question.
The development for Giuliani marks the first time a close adviser to Trump has been notified he is a target in a criminal investigation into the then-President’s inner circle around the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. Both the Georgia grand jury and the Justice Department are investigating the post-election efforts to help Trump retain his office.
Giuliani’s status became public on Monday alongside other developments in the Georgia investigation – with a court euling that Sen. Lindsey Graham must testify:
A federal judge in Atlanta has denied GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham’s motion to quash a subpoena, ruling that he must testify before a Fulton County grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
In her written decision on Monday, US District Judge Leigh Martin May sent the case to the Superior Court of Fulton County to hear further proceedings on the US Constitution’s “Speech or Debate” clause, the centerpiece that Graham’s attorneys argued immunized the US senator from South Carolina from having to testify in this case.
“Because the record must be more fully developed before the Court can address the applicability of the ‘Speech or Debate’ clause to specific questions or lines of inquiry, and because Senator Graham’s only request in removing the subpoena to this Court was to quash the subpoena in its entirety, the Case is REMANDED to the Superior Court of Fulton County for further proceedings,” May wrote in the ruling.
The South Carolina Republican is scheduled to appear as a witness in Atlanta in front of the special grand jury on August 23.
In her ruling, May wrote that there are “considerable areas of inquiry” that are not “legislative in nature” and said that the District Attorney’s office has shown “extraordinary circumstances and a special need for Senator Graham’s testimony on issues relating to alleged attempts to influence or disrupt the lawful administration of Georgia’s 2020 elections.”
There are new developments in several other criminal probes as well touching upon the ex-President and his advisers.
Those include the investigation into the handling of classified records at Mar-a-Lago after Trump’s presidency and the federal grand jury that is investigating January 6.
The January 6 federal grand jury subpoenaed Eric Herschmann, a former Trump White House lawyer and senior adviser, CNN and other outlets reported Monday.
Giuliani being told by prosecutors that he is the target of the investigation was first reported by The New York Times. The district attorney’s office declined to comment to CNN for this story.
Costello told CNN that while Giuliani “will appear before the grand jury,” he made no promises about how responsive his client would be.
“If they want to play hardball, we know how to play hardball,” Costello said.
Giuliani was ordered by a Georgia Judge to appear before the Special Grand Jury this Wednesday. The Judge told him that if he cannot fly, he should take a train, or a bus, or a car to the hearing. But be there.
So here are your two options, Rudy: you can either plead the Fifth Amendment and follow the code of omertà like a loyal mob consigliere, and risk doing time for the “Orange Mafia” Don; or if you do not want to go to prison in your old age and possibly die in prison, now is the time for you to cut a deal with prosecutors to flip on your Coup Plotter co-conspirators and become a cooperative witness to avoid prison time. I shouldn’t have to explain this to you. You used to be a federal prosecutor, you know your options.
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UPDATE 8/17/22: Rudy must have gotten a car ride from New York because he actually showed up today at the Fulton County court house.
USA Today reports, “Giuliani gives 6-hour testimony in Georgia criminal probe”, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/08/17/trump-investigations-live-updates/10343126002/
Rudy Giuliani departed an Atlanta courthouse Wednesday, declining to comment following a nearly six-hour session before a special grand jury investigating interference in the 2020 election.
Citing grand jury secrecy, Giuliani’s attorney, Robert Costello, declined to say whether former President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer invoked his right against self-incrimination after being designated by Fulton County prosecutors as a target of the inquiry.
“It was cordial,” Costello said.
Earlier this week, Georgia prosecutors notified Giuliani’s lawyers that the former New York mayor is now a target of the widening probe, led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Costello had said that his client would decline to answer questions about any conversations with Trump. [He would assert attorney-client privilege, which is waived by the crime-fraud exception.] Given his status as a target, it was not immediately clear whether Giuliani would answer any questions. [Asserting his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.]
Shan Wu, legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, writes at NBC News, “Rudy Giuliani has only two safe options in Georgia”, https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/rudy-giuliani-has-only-two-safe-options-georgia-criminal-investigation-rcna43381
His role in Donald Trump’s orbit over the years has led many to question whether Giuliani (a lawyer who also served in Ronald Reagan’s Justice Department) has forgotten how the system works. And hearing that he will probably use attorney-client privilege as a shield against the investigation in Georgia is the latest head-scratching instance. According to The New York Times, Giuliani’s lawyer mentioned the possibility in an interview. It is arrogant and misguided of Giuliani to think that invoking attorney-client privilege is an effective strategy.
At this point, he has only two safe options. He can invoke the Fifth Amendment repeatedly, or he can negotiate a cooperation deal with not only Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, but also the Justice Department. Such broad deals are often referred to as “global” cooperation and plea bargains, and it is the only way Giuliani may be able to put an end to what otherwise will be an ever-growing line of investigations and potential charges.
Any other strategy on his part is just wishful thinking. Attorney General Merrick Garland and other prosecutors may struggle over whether to take the unprecedented step of criminally charging a former president, but they will have little compunction about charging, prosecuting and seeking jail time for an allegedly crooked lawyer.
[G]iuliani is stuck arguing that all his actions were just part of his fervent advocacy for his personal client — Trump. While it is a foundation of legal ethics that lawyers are to represent their clients zealously, being a lawyer confers no grant of immunity from prosecution for crimes the lawyer commits. Furthermore, when a lawyer knows that a client seeks the lawyer’s aid in committing crimes, the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege applies, and the lawyer is free to reveal confidential but incriminating information.
The fact that Giuliani was not in government but was rather part of a group of nongovernment people conspiring to help overturn the results of a valid election highlights the potential illegal nature of Trump’s pressuring others to lie about nonexistent election fraud. It also implicitly endangers Giuliani’s client (Trump), because it is impossible to imagine that Giuliani was acting as an advocate for Trump without any direction from him. That is, of course, precisely what the Fulton County district attorney wants to learn from Giuliani: What did Trump tell you to do?