ATLANTA – Key witnesses in the investigation into whether former President Donald Trump and his allies interfered in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election were seen at the Fulton County courthouse Monday, just as prosecutors appear poised to file charges.
The Reuters news agency reported that a file that appeared on the Fulton County courthouse website shortly after noon indicated that Trump had been indicted. The document was quickly removed from the site, Reuters reported, changing its report to say the state of Georgia was “ready to impeach” the former president. A representative for the Fulton County District Attorney’s office called the report inaccurate.
Former State Sen. Jen Jordan and State Rep. Bee Nguyen, two Democrats who attended hearings in which then-Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani urged officials not to certify the Georgia election results, were seen by NBC. News inside the courthouse.
Jordan would not confirm that he was there to testify, but he was heard asking security for directions to the Fulton County District Attorney’s office inside the building. Nguyen confirmed to reporters that she had testified before the grand jury as he was leaving court in the early afternoon.
There were also signs that the jury was moving quickly. Freelance journalist George Chidi, who was scheduled to testify before the jury on Tuesday, told NBC News that “they just called me early” and was headed to court on Monday afternoon.
Jordan, Nguyen and Chidi were among several who had been subpoenaed to testify before a jury this month. Another is Geoff Duncan, a Republican who was the state’s lieutenant governor during the 2020 presidential election period and criticized Trump’s efforts to reverse his defeat in Georgia.
Trump said in a post on his own social network, Truth Social, that Duncan should not comply with the subpoena.
“I am reading reports that the failed former Georgia Lieutenant Governor, Jeff Duncan, will testify before the Fulton County jury. It shouldn’t,” the former president wrote. Furthermore, he called Duncan a “loser” and a “nasty mess.”
In the post, Trump also mocked CNN, where Duncan works as a contributor.
The post appeared to have the potential to expose Trump to further legal trouble, specifically over a Georgia law on witness influence.
The District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the post, and a representative for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Duncan also declined to comment on Trump’s post. He only said that the former president misspelled “Geoff.”
The former president also continued his attacks on Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, calling her a “fake” and claiming she was running a political witch hunt. “She just wants to ‘get Trump,'” he wrote in one of his all-caps posts.
Willis has been conducting an extensive investigation since early 2021 into whether there were “coordinated attempts to unlawfully tamper with the outcome of the 2020 election” by Trump and his allies.
She recruited a special jury last year, which was empowered to subpoena witnesses to help the investigation. She heard testimony from 75 witnesses, court records show. The panel recommended charging more than a dozen people, its leader said on NBC’s “Nightly News” in February.
Willis’ investigation has looked into Trump’s efforts to pressure Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and others to challenge certified election results, as well as a plan to have a list of alternate presidential electors.
Those cases also figured prominently in special counsel Jack Smith’s federal indictment earlier this month alleging that Trump used “illegal means” to try to stay in the White House following the victory of now-President Joe Biden. in the 2020 elections.
Trump pleaded not guilty in the federal case and maintains he did nothing wrong in Georgia.
Security in and around the court was increased last week and remained high on Monday. Willis sent letters to the chief judge and law enforcement officials earlier this year, indicating that his office could file charges in the first half of August.
“I respectfully request that judges not schedule in-person trials or hearings during the weeks beginning Monday, August 7 and Monday, August 14,” Willis wrote in his letter to the chief judge in May.
