Grand jury seeks testimony from Gingrich, Flynn in Trump probe
ATLANTA – The Fulton County special grand jury investigating potential interference in Georgia’s 2020 elections is seeking testimony from a new batch of former President Donald Trump’s allies, including ex-Georgia Rep. Newt Gingrich.
In addition to the former House speaker, jurors are requesting testimony from Michael Flynn, Trump’s ex-national security adviser, and former White House counsel Eric Herschmann in mid- and late November.
The petitions, technically known as certificates of material witness, were filed Friday and approved by Fulton Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney. Once greenlit by a judge in a witness’ home state, they essentially function as subpoenas.
The documents amounted to what’s likely a final flurry of public activity ahead of next month’s elections. Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis, who’s advising the grand jury, recently said she’d pause major public activities in the investigation beginning on Friday until after the elections.
Many of the petitions, which were first reported by The Associated Press, were based on evidence uncovered by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Gingrich, Flynn and Herschmann are the latest Trump confidantes to be summoned by the grand jury. The 23 jurors – who are tasked with recommending whether Willis should press any charges – previously sought the testimony of former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Trump’s onetime personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.
Graham is still fighting his subpoena, and Meadows’ petition is expected to be heard by a South Carolina judge in mid-October. Giuliani testified in August, and several former campaign attorneys have also delivered testimony in recent weeks.
Gingrich’s petition relies on evidence made available by the Select Committee. According to the panel, Gingrich urged the Trump campaign “to air advertisements promoting the false narrative that election workers had smuggled suitcases containing fake ballots” at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena. He was also allegedly involved in the plan to appoint a slate of “alternate” Republican electors in swing states like Georgia that were narrowly won by Joe Biden.
Flynn’s summons cites comments he made during a Dec. 17, 2020, appearance on Newsmax, during which he said Trump “could order – within the swing states, if he wanted to – he could take military capabilities, and he could place them in those states and basically rerun an election in each of those states.” It says Flynn also met with former Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell, who was previously called by the special grand jury, to discuss seizing voting machines and invoking martial law.
Jurors want to speak with Herschmann because of several conversations, including one with Giuliani, Powell and John Eastman, another former Trump attorney who recently testified before the grand jury, about “their efforts to influence the results of the November 2020 elections in Georgia and elsewhere.”
Petitions were also filed Friday for the testimony of Jim Penrose and Stephen Cliffgard Lee.
Penrose is identified as a cyber investigations, operations and forensics consultant who worked with people on the Trump campaign following the 2020 elections. He allegedly had multiple communications with Powell and the Atlanta data firm SullivanStrickler regarding an agreement to copy voter data in Coffee County, Georgia, and two other counties in Michigan and Nevada.
The petition says Penrose “personally accessed electronic data in the possession” of SullivanStrickler and “arranged for the delivery of a hard drive containing electronic data that was copied from voting system equipment to individuals involved in the multi-state, coordinated efforts to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.”
Lee, who lives in Illinois, was allegedly involved in the effort to pressure a Fulton County coworker, Ruby Freeman, to falsely admit to committing election fraud.