Federal judge to deny Rep. Jody Hice’s challenge to subpoena from Georgia DA in Trump election probe
By Jason Morris, CNN
A federal judge in Atlanta said Monday that she will deny Republican Rep. Jody Hice’s request to quash a subpoena to appear in front of a special grand jury investigating efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
US District Judge Leigh Martin May, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, told attorneys at a hearing that she will remand the case back to the Superior Court of Fulton County for Hice to raise any objections to specific questions posed by the special purpose grand jury.
Hice received a subpoena last month to appear as a witness in front of the grand jury. The bare-bones subpoena is one page long and does not indicate how Hice relates to the investigation or why Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis wants the Georgia congressman to testify.
Hice is one of Trump’s political allies in Georgia and has repeatedly spread misinformation about the 2020 election, saying Trump would have won if it was “fair.” Hice mounted an unsuccessful Trump-backed primary challenge against Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who fended off Trump’s efforts to interfere with the results of the 2020 election.
Georgia has remained a central focus for investigators at state and federal levels. The Atlanta-area investigation was prompted after the revelation of Trump’s phone call pressuring Raffensperger to “find” the votes needed to swing the state to him. The Justice Department is also investigating a “fake electors” scheme. A grand jury in Washington issued subpoenas in March related to it and other matters.
Hice had tried to fight the subpoena in federal court instead of bringing the case in front of the Fulton County Superior Court judge who is overseeing the grand jury.
The congressman’s legal team argued that the subpoena violates the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause, which shields lawmakers from certain law enforcement actions related to their legislative duties. Hice also claimed that the subpoena ran afoul of the “high-ranking official” doctrine, which sets certain legal standards for when a high-ranking official can be compelled to give testimony.
The judge said that by denying Hice’s motion to quash the subpoena on Monday, she is “remanding this back to superior court for further proceedings,” for attorneys to “confer” about “specific questions.”
Hice was scheduled to appear as a witness in front of the grand jury earlier this month.
Willis, a Democrat, recently subpoenaed a slew of Trump allies, as well as 16 fake electors who participated in a plan to subvert the Electoral College.
In a separate ruling Monday, another Georgia judge blocked Willis from investigating Burt Jones, a Republican state senator who signed on to the “unofficial electorate certificate” in the effort.
Jones is currently running for lieutenant governor in Georgia against Democrat Charlie Bailey. Willis hosted a campaign fundraiser for Bailey last month and donated to his primary campaign earlier this year.
Willis’ office, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said, may “ask witnesses about the Senator’s role in the various efforts the State Republican party undertook to call into question the legitimacy of the results of the election. What her office may not do is make sure of any such evidence to develop a case against the Senator.”
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.
CNN’s Devan Cole contributed to this report.
