JUST IN: Fulton County DA Fani Willis says any further delay in Sen. Lindsey Graham's testimony could "delay the
revelation of an entire category of relevant witnesses or information."
"This would significantly harm the interests and administration of the [grand jury]."
BREAKING: Federal judge has *denied* Sen. Graham's effort to stay the ruling requiring him to testify to the Fulton County grand jury on Aug. 23. Now the question of a stay rests with the appeals court, which received Graham's case yesterday.
Judge Leigh Martin May does not seem thrilled with Graham's effort to pick apart her ruling.
The Judge's point is that not every aspect the DA wants to question Graham about could conceivably be protected by the Speech or Debate clause — including whether Graham coordinated his phone calls to GA officials with the Trump campaign.
Judge agrees that delaying Graham's testimony could be a significant hindrance to the overall grand jury investigation.
NOTABLE: In Graham's motion to stay the lower court ruling, his attorney says the DA's office had verbally promised to postpone his grand jury appearance pending appeal. He says they didn't tell him until 4:40 a.m. today that they were changing course.
Trump attorney Jim TRUSTY on Mark Levin show making case for a special master — unclear why it took two weeks for Trump team to reach this point.
Levin now wondering whether it's too late, given FBI has combed through this material.
Levin, for what it's worth, endorsed the strategy and said he thinks Trusty is doing a good job.
Trusty said Trump team wants to know what "pre-raid" converastion was and whether agents were given instructions not to review potentially privileged info.
Trusty primarily made the blanket case for a special master:
-There may be "large swaths" of privileged material in boxes taken by FBI
-Can't take DOJ/FBI's word that their filter team is screening properly
-Want to know whether "pre-raid" instructions to agents were adequate.
DOJ seeking 46 months incarceration for 72-year-old Jan. 6 defendant Howard Richardson, who lied about the circumstances of his assault on a police officer even after he was presented with video of the incident.
DOJ noted Richardson's age but said he'd exhibited a pattern of troubling/dangerous behavior in recent years. In 2018 he had his concealed carry permit revoked after he drew his gun during an incident at a gas station.
In Oct. 2020, he lied about being unarmed during a traffic stop only to later tell the officer he had a loaded gun in his car.
-Literally anything Magistrate Judge Reinhart says. He may broadly characterize the contents of the affidavit. He may address threats against him and the (groundless, it seems) claims of bias.
-Which Trump lawyers show up, and do they address the court?
@nicholaswu12@AndrewDesiderio -Does Reinhart lean toward releasing a heavily redacted version of the affidavit rather than simply keeping the entire document under seal?
-Does Reinhart reveal more about the initial search warrant process to underscore his decision to grant/sign it?
Gov. Kemp is seeking to quash a subpoena from the Fulton County DA for an interview this month. He included this letter from Fani Willis indicating she intends to personally question him and vowing she won’t take any actions once early voting begins.
Kemp is seeking to delay his interview until after the general election, but Willis’ team says grand jurors are pressing forward and want his testimony sooner.
Here’s what the DA’s office told Kemp to focus on when producing records to the grand jury. Pretty good window into the focus of the Fulton County investigation:
@lisakashinsky SIDE NOTE: Pence says he has to consider the "unprecedented" nature of a former VP being "summoned" for congressional testimony. But what he's describing is compelled testimony (a subpoena).
As Josh points out, many presidents and VPs have voluntarily testified to Congress. This is far from unprecedented, unless Pence is going to demand compulsion to cooperate.
JUST IN: DOJ says it intends to unseal additional documents related to the Mar-a-Lago search. politico.com/f/?id=00000182…
DOJ *opposes* the release of the underlying FBI affidavit because "it would serve as a roadmap to the government’s
ongoing investigation, providing specific details about its direction and likely course, in a manner that is highly likely to compromise future investigative steps."
MORE: "The fact that this
investigation implicates highly classified materials further underscores the need to protect the integrity of the investigation"