Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp filed a motion on Wednesday to quash a subpoena sent to him in the criminal investigation into the 2020 election in Fulton County.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis “engineered” the subpoena seeking his testimony to happen “in the middle of an election cycle.” Kemp is currently set to testify before the grand jury on Thursday, less than three months before his state’s gubernatorial election.
“For more than a year, the Governor’s team has continually expressed his desire to provide a full accounting of his very limited role in the issues being looked at by the special grand jury,” a spokesperson for the governor’s office told the Washington Examiner. “We are now just weeks away from the 2022 general election making it increasingly difficult to dedicate the time necessary to prepare and then appear.”
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Brian McEvoy, Kemp’s lawyer, has also criticized Kemp’s subpoena as a means to delay the governor’s testimony close to the 2022 midterm elections. Willis, Fulton County’s district attorney, is a Democrat.
Kemp’s counsel was willing to engage and frequently inquired about interview dates for the governor’s testimony, but many of their communications were met with silence from the DA’s office, according to McEvoy. Both sides eventually agreed to have Kemp answer questions under oath from prosecutors, but the video appearance was abruptly canceled after prosecutors appeared to change their minds about a preinterview meeting that would explain the scope of the governor’s testimony, McEvoy said
Kemp was subpoenaed shortly after the July 25 meeting was canceled, according to McEvoy. In the event that Kemp’s subpoena is not dismissed, Kemp’s motion requests for his testimony to be delayed until late 2022 or early 2023 and also asks for the court to establish parameters for his questioning.
Willis responded to McEvoy in the form of a letter. “The email you have sent is offensive and beneath an officer of the court. You are both wrong and confused,” the lengthy response reads.
Fulton County DA Fani Willis isn’t messing around. Her letter to Kemp’s lawyer, embedded in the today’s court filing over a pending subpoena of the governor:
“The email you have sent is offensive and beneath an officer of the court. You are both wrong and confused.” #gapol pic.twitter.com/CvtSdkICES— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) August 17, 2022
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Kemp is running for reelection this year against Democrat Stacey Abrams in a rematch of their 2018 race. A poll commissioned by the Kemp campaign in early July showed Kemp leading with 50% support, ahead of Abrams’s 45%. The survey was conducted among 1,200 likely general election voters and had a margin of error of around 2.6 percentage points, according to Newsweek.
Democrats argued Kemp is eager to win the backing of Donald Trump in the general election after defeating the former president’s preferred candidate in this year’s primary.
“Time and time again, Brian Kemp has shown just how desperate he is to receive Donald Trump’s support,” said Max Flugrath, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Georgia. “After Trump repeatedly attacked and disrespected Kemp during the primary, Kemp is now fighting a subpoena to testify against the former president for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The timing tells the story — just last week Kemp said he’d welcome Trump’s endorsement, now Kemp is trying to get out of testifying against him. With twelve weeks until the election, Kemp is terrified about getting on Trump’s bad side and doing all he can to avoid further attacks.”
