Georgia district attorney investigating Trump calls for Mark Meadows to testify before special grand jury
By Zachary Cohen, Sara Murray and Jason Morris, CNN
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has called on Mark Meadows — former President Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff — to testify before the special grand jury investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, according to a new court filing obtained by CNN.
Willis writes in the filing, which calls on Meadows to testify September 27, that he is a material witness to her ongoing criminal investigation because of a variety of his actions following the 2020 election.
Meadows participated in a call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in January 2021, in which Trump called on Raffensperger to “find” the nearly 12,000 votes needed for Trump to win the state. Meadows also made a surprise appearance at a location in Cobb County in December 2020, where officials were conducting an audit of absentee ballots.
Additionally, Meadows reached out to officials at the Justice Department to make “various allegations of voter fraud in Georgia and elsewhere and [request] that the Department of Justice conduct investigations into these allegations,” according to the new filing.
CNN has reached out to Meadows’ attorney for comment.
Details of the new filing were first reported by Politico.
Willis is also seeking testimony on September 22 from two others who spread misinformation about the election — Trump-connected attorney Sidney Powell and retired Army Col. James “Phil” Waldron, according to additional court filings.
The court filing seeking Powell’s testimony said she has “unique knowledge” of communications between herself, Trump, the Trump campaign and others about efforts to influence the 2020 election results. It also notes that public reporting has linked Powell to an effort in Georgia to obtain voting machine data.
As for Waldron, he also supported efforts to try to upend the presidential election results and, a court filing notes, he appeared before Georgia lawmakers in December 2020, where he testified about “purported vulnerabilities” in Dominion voting machines.
Willis is also demanding testimony from Trump ally Boris Epshteyn on September 21, as she seeks more information about his alleged role in helping to organize pro-Trump slates of electors in battleground states President Joe Biden won in 2020.
The judge overseeing the Georgia special grand jury signed off on Willis’ efforts to obtain testimony from Meadows, Powell, Waldron and Epshteyn, although the witnesses could still move to challenge any summons to testify.
These latest court filings come at a critical moment in Willis’ investigation. Prosecutors from her office have spent months presenting evidence and witness testimony to a special grand jury empaneled to investigate the aftermath of the 2020 election. The Atlanta-area investigation was prompted after the revelation of Trump’s phone call with Raffensperger.
“You and I have listened to that phone call. But also I have the benefit of also having talked to a lot of witnesses and probably having read more on this than most people would like to,” Willis told CNN earlier this year.
Last week, a prosecutor from the Fulton County district attorney’s office informed Rudy Giuliani‘s counsel that the former New York City mayor is a target of the probe.
This story has been updated with additional information from the court filings.
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CNN’s Paul LeBlanc contributed to this report.
