Trump attorney and adviser testified before Georgia grand jury investigating election interference
By Sara Murray and Paul LeBlanc, CNN
Boris Epshteyn, an attorney and adviser to former President Donald Trump, testified before a Georgia grand jury investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis sought Epshteyn’s testimony as part of her probe into efforts by Trump and his allies to subvert the election results in the Peach State. She was interested in learning more about Epshteyn’s alleged role in helping to organize pro-Trump slates of electors in battleground states that President Joe Biden actually won in the last presidential election.
Epshteyn appeared on Thursday after telling the court that he would likely cite attorney-client privilege on some questions and raising concerns that he had too few details about what prosecutors intended to ask him, according to an earlier court filing.
The New York Times first reported Epshteyn’s appearance before the grand jury. An attorney for Epshteyn did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.
The testimony from a close adviser to the former President comes after prosecutors have spent months presenting evidence and witness testimony to a special grand jury empaneled to investigate the aftermath of the 2020 election.
The Atlanta-area investigation kicked off after the revelation of Trump’s phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger wherein he pushed the Republican to “find” votes to overturn the election results.
“The people of Georgia are angry, the people of the country are angry. And there’s nothing wrong with saying that, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated,” Trump said during the January 2021 call. Raffensperger responded, “Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong.”
In a previous statement repeating his lies about the 2020 election, Trump said, “I didn’t say anything wrong in the call, made while I was President on behalf of the United States of America, to look into the massive voter fraud which took place in Georgia,” while adding that a special grand jury should not be looking into his “perfect” phone call.
Earlier this year, Willis told CNN: “You and I have listened to that phone call. But also I have the benefit of also having talked to a lot of witnesses and probably having read more on this than most people would like to.”
The Georgia inquiry is just one of several investigations that Trump is fielding since leaving office. The former President is also facing the New York attorney general’s civil investigation into the Trump Organization and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office criminal investigation into his namesake company.
This story has been updated with additional information Thursday.
The-CNN-Wire
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