According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, a Florida appeals court has cleared the way for Michael Flynn, former President Donald Trump’s onetime national security adviser, to testify before a special grand jury in Fulton County.
The order upholds a lower court ruling that denied Flynn’s push for a stay on his appearance.
The paper explains:
It was not immediately clear whether Flynn would appear on Thursday or if the Fulton District Attorney’s office, which is advising the grand jury, would reschedule his testimony.
A spokesman for Fulton DA Fani Willis declined to comment. Flynn’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The 23-person special grand jury is investigating whether Trump or his allies criminally meddled in the administration of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election. Prosecutors have said that Flynn is one of the last remaining witnesses who has yet to testify, and they’ve indicated the grand jury is likely to wrap up its work in the weeks ahead.
The order is a victory for the DAW, who has “won a recent string of court fights filed by witnesses resisting their summons to come testify.”
The South Carolina Supreme Court compelled former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to appear before the grand jury last week in a similar case, which put an end to a months-long standoff for his appearance. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina back around Thanksgiving answered jurors’ questions for more than two hours after taking his challenge to avoid appearing before the court all the way to the Supreme Court.
According to the report, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is the other high profile person trying to avoid testifying in these cases:
“The onetime Georgia congressman, who now lives in Virginia, recently appealed a Fairfax County, Va., circuit court ruling that said he must testify.”
The Journal Constitution concludes:
“Fulton prosecutors previously said they’re interested in discussing the circumstances related to his pardon, as well as comments he made to Newsmax in late 2020 in which he said Trump could invoke martial law and seize voting machines. They also said they’d like to question Flynn about a meeting he attended at the White House in Dec. 2020 with Trump campaign officials and attorney Sidney Powell in which those same topics were discussed.
Willis previously said she’s hoping to wrap up the grand jury’s work by the end of the calendar year. She has yet to decide whether she wants to call Trump himself to come testify, either formally or informally.”
