CNN
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Rudy Giuliani has been told by Georgia prosecutors that he is a target of the special-purpose grand jury investigating whether former President Donald Trump and his allies broke the law in their efforts to turn around Georgia’s 2020 election results.
A prosecutor for the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office called Giuliani’s Georgia attorney Monday to say that Giuliani is now a target of their investigation, said Bob Costello, another attorney for Giuliani.
“That follows we probably asked him six or seven times” if Giuliani was a target, Costello said. He said prosecutors had previously declined to answer that question.
The development for Giuliani marks the first time a close Trump aide has been briefed that he is the target of a criminal investigation into the then-president’s inner circle following the 2020 presidential election. Both the Georgia grand jury and the Justice Department are investigating post-election efforts to help Trump stay in office.
Giuliani’s status was released Monday along with other developments in the Georgia probe — with a court ruling requiring Senator Lindsey Graham to testify — as well as several other criminal investigations involving the ex-president and his aides.
These include the probe into the handling of classified records at Mar-a-Lago after Trump’s presidency and the federal grand jury investigating Jan. 6.
The Jan. 6 federal grand jury subpoenaed Eric Herschmann, a former attorney and senior adviser to Trump’s White House, CNN and other media outlets reported Monday.
The New York Times first reported that Giuliani was told by prosecutors that he was the target of the investigation. Prosecutors declined to comment on the story to CNN.
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.
Costello said he made it very clear to the Fulton County prosecutor that his client would not answer questions about talks between Giuliani and Trump, but declined to say whether Giuliani would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
“If you think he’s going to talk to you about conversations with his client, you’re delusional,” Costello said. Everything, he says, “depends on the questions they ask.”
Commenting on Giuliani’s reaction to being the target of the special jury, he added: “I don’t think he was surprised. He has no confidence or belief in this Fulton grand jury trial. It’s a political stunt.”
On Monday afternoon, the former New York Mayor addressed the development on his podcast, The Rudy Giuliani Show. “They’ve told me now that I’m the target — I’m a target of their investigation in Atlanta,” Giuliani said.
“As I recall, I acted as attorney for Donald J. Trump in Georgia, so I am being prosecuted for what I did as an attorney.”
Giuliani, who served as Trump’s attorney during the 2020 election, was ordered by an Atlanta-area judge to appear in person before the special jury this week.
Giuliani was subpoenaed in July, and a New York judge ordered the former mayor to testify before the special jury in Georgia after failing to show up at a New York hearing for blocking the subpoena. The former New York mayor also tried unsuccessfully to delay his appearance by saying not to fly after undergoing heart stent surgery last month.
Giuliani met with Georgia state lawmakers three times in December 2020 after the presidential election — twice in person and once remotely. During the meetings, Giuliani floated conspiracy theories about widespread irregularities and fraud in the state. Among his many false claims, Giuliani accused two Atlanta poll workers of smuggling fraudulent ballots for Joe Biden in suitcases.
Democratic state lawmakers previously reported to CNN’s grand jury about the grand jury testimonies they were asked to give in the district attorney’s investigation that covered Giuliani’s conduct. They said they testified about Giuliani’s appearance at a Georgia Senate subcommittee hearing on December 3, 2020, at which Giuliani made false allegations of mass election fraud.
Numerous state and federal officials have debunked Giuliani’s cheating allegations in Georgia, a state that Biden won by nearly 12,000 votes. Byung “Bjay” Pak, the former chief federal attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, was among those who testified before the US House of Representatives special committee investigating the January 6, 2021 riot that Giuliani’s allegations of voter fraud in Fulton County were investigated by federal authorities and found wrong.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, detailed the wide-ranging scope of the investigation, saying she would investigate the potential “solicitation of voter fraud, making false statements to state and local government agencies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and… any involvement in violence or threats related to the administration of elections.”
This story was updated Monday with additional developments.
