Former US President Donald Trump’s (2017-2021) chief of staff Mark Meadows is due to testify before a grand jury on efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia, where Democrat Joe won Biden. .
In a ruling issued Tuesday, the South Carolina Supreme Court denied Meadows’ request to avoid making a statement and forced him to testify before a grand jury in Atlanta, Georgia, investigating the case.
The five judges of the Court found Meadows’ appeal to be unfounded after examining the arguments presented.
Last week, another close associate of Trump, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, finally testified before the same grand jury after months of trying to avoid it through court battles.
Graham had petitioned the US Supreme Court to avoid appearing before a jury in Atlanta, but the country’s highest court overturned his attempt.
The case is part of an investigation in Georgia into whether Trump and others, including Meadows and Graham, lobbied that state’s political representatives in relation to the 2020 election results.
Trump exposed without evidence massive voter fraud that gave Biden the victory, and a mob of Republican supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 to stop the ratification of the Democrat’s victory.
In Georgia and other U.S. states, special grand juries cannot issue criminal indictments, but they do have the power to subpoena witnesses and documents in a trial that takes place in secret.
At the end of their mission, these type of juries, made up of between 16 and 23 people, issue a report with their findings and sometimes recommend some measures, but it is up to the prosecutors to decide whether to charge or not, something they would need to do. to present evidence to another grand jury.
