The Georgia attorney general, leading a criminal investigation into possible election interference by then-President Donald Trump and his allies, wants to hear from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser.
In court filings Friday, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, Gingrich and Flynn said they each had “unique knowledge” of the circumstances, which they described as “a coordinated effort by multiple states to affect the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.” designated. ”
Both Trump allies have been asked to appear before a grand jury, with a proposed date of November 16 for Gingrich and November 22 for Flynn.
Willis said prosecutors wanted to ask Gingrich about his alleged involvement in a plan for GOP voters to meet and cast electoral college votes in Georgia and other states won by President Joe Biden. Gingrich allegedly wrote an email to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Trump’s White House adviser Pat Cipollone asking about the coordination of the “controversial electoral college” on Dec. 14, 2020, Willis said on appeal on a Jan. 6 last month House of Representatives committee letter to Gingrich, urging him to testify about emails he exchanged with former senior Trump advisers, including Jared Kushner and Jason Miller. The panel said that Gingrich according to emails it received, its contribution to television advertisements that were “repetitive and based on false allegations of fraud in the 2020 election.”
According to Friday’s court filings, Willis is also seeking Gingrich’s testimony regarding the ads.
In her petition asking for Flynn’s testimony, Willis cited an interview he gave to Newsmax in December 2020, in which she said he suggested “that the former President could order Trump — within the swing states, if he wanted – that he could take on military capabilities, he could place them in those states and basically repeat an election in each of those states.’”
Prosecutors also want to question Flynn about a December 2020 meeting he had at the White House with Trump, attorney Sidney Powell and others associated with the Trump campaign, which the filing says discussed discussions about Powell’s appointment as special counsel investigating the election 2020 included invoking martial law and confiscating voting machines.
Flynn was subpoenaed by the January 6 House Committee to testify about the same meeting in the Oval Office. He exercised his Fifth Amendment right by declining to answer the committee’s questions during a closed session in March.
NBC News has reached out to representatives from Flynn and Gingrich for comment.
The new testimonies come after the probe was expanded in August to include members of Trump’s inner circle from his final weeks in office, such as Meadows and Powell. In mid-August, Trump’s former personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, identified as the “target” of the investigation, spent six hours at the Fulton County Courthouse testifying.
Prosecutors said Friday they were also seeking testimony from Trump White House official Eric Herschmann, who also testified before the Jan. 6 committee, regarding conversations he had with the former president and his inner circle about their efforts led to overturning the 2020 election.
Willis also sought testimony from Jim Penrose, a former National Security Agency officer who worked for Powell when a local voting office in Coffee County, Georgia was allegedly burgled, and Stephen Cliffgard Lee, an Illinois chaplain who was a Trump officer campaign coordinated director to reach out to Fulton County Election Worker Ruby Freeman at her home.
