The Daily Fuckup

Fulton County prosecutors took a new step in the Georgia election-interference investigation on July 5, 2022, filing court-backed petitions to compel testimony from Rudy Giuliani, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and other Trump allies before the special grand jury. The process was overseen by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who had authorized the special grand jury that was already gathering evidence for District Attorney Fani Willis.

The move did not accuse the named people of a crime. It signaled that prosecutors believed they had identified witnesses with information relevant to the inquiry and wanted their answers under oath. In Georgia, that kind of court order can force a witness to appear and testify, even if the person is a political figure or a former White House adviser.

Giuliani had been one of the most visible promoters of Trump’s false fraud claims after the 2020 election. Graham, a Republican senator at the time, had contacts with Georgia officials as Trump allies tried to challenge the state’s certified results. Other Trump associates were also drawn into the same round of witness orders as investigators continued to map the effort to keep Georgia’s vote in dispute after the election.

The filings were part of a broader investigation into whether pressure was applied through meetings, calls, and other contacts with public officials and election workers. The paperwork itself did not answer that question. It did, however, show prosecutors were moving beyond public statements and into sworn testimony and records that could help establish who said what, and when.

Willis later said the investigation was still active and more subpoenas were possible. For now, the July 5 filings marked another escalation in a case built document by document, witness by witness, around the attempt to overturn Georgia’s 2020 result.