Rudy Giuliani is testifying before a grand jury on Wednesday in Atlanta, days after learning he is a target of a criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
What happened: Georgia prosecutors on Monday told the former New York City mayor and close ally of former President Donald Trump that he is a target of their probe into illegal efforts to undermine the election.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is also investigating 16 Trump supporters who fraudulently signed an “unofficial electoral certificate” in an effort to cast Georgia’s 16 electoral college votes for Trump.
In the months following the 2020 election, Giuliani promoted the “big lie” — Trump’s false claim that the election was stolen — at a number of events, including a memorable press conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Philadelphia, where he made the baseless claim that President Joe Biden’s win in Pennsylvania was due to voter fraud, as NPR reported at the time.
Why it matters: Giuliani is the highest-profile Trump ally to appear before a grand jury, and his appearance represents another step forward in various efforts to hold Trump and his allies accountable for efforts to undermine the democratic process.
It’s unclear what Giuliani will tell investigators, or if he will take a page out of Trump’s playbook and plead the Fifth Amendment in order to avoid answering questions.
Key quote: “They’ll ask the questions, and we’ll see,” Giuliani said, when asked what he expects to talk about by a group of reporters outside the Fulton County courthouse, according to The New York Times.