By Tierney Sneed | CNN
A choose in Colorado mentioned on Tuesday that Jenna Ellis, an lawyer who represented Donald Trump throughout and after the 2020 election, should seem earlier than the Fulton County, Georgia, grand jury investigating the previous President’s election schemes.
In issuing the order, eighth Judicial District Decide Gregory Lammons careworn the restricted position he was being requested to play.
That is “one witness on this state testifying in one other state,” he mentioned on the finish of an hour-long listening to on the matter, which had been initiated by native prosecutors in Colorado on behalf of the Atlanta prosecutors main the probe.
Fulton County investigators have subpoenaed Ellis for grand jury testimony for August 25. Nevertheless they've provided a spread of dates on which she might seem to be able to accommodate her schedule, Daybreak Downs, a lawyer within the Larimer County district lawyer’s workplace, mentioned within the listening to.
Throughout the listening to within the Larimer County courthouse in Fort Collins, Will Wooten, a lawyer within the Fulton County district lawyer’s workplace, testified just about about why Ellis’ testimony was “materials” and “mandatory” to the particular grand jury that has been empaneled in Atlanta to analyze the Trump-aligned efforts to subvert the 2020 election ends in Georgia.
Wooten mentioned the investigation had 5 areas of curiosity in looking for her testimony: investigators’ perception that she was concerned in planning hearings earlier than Georgia lawmakers the place Trump allies pushed claims of mass election fraud; authorized memos Ellis authored advising that then-Vice President Mike Pence might disrupt the certification of President Joe Biden’s win; her social media posts selling election fraud claims; her participation in media interviews the place she made these allegations; and any “distinctive information” she would have about how Trump’s associates had been coordinating.
Fulton County District Legal professional Fani Willis is main the particular grand jury investigation, the place among the many crimes being probed are solicitation of election fraud, conspiracy and making false statements to state and native authorities our bodies.
Democratic Georgia lawmakers have recounted to CNN testimony they’ve given earlier than the grand jury centered on the hearings that Trump’s staff participated in earlier than the legislature. At Tuesday’s listening to within the Ellis subpoena dispute, Wooten mentioned that the grand jury was eager about her testimony because it associated to the hearings that had been held earlier than a George Senate subcommittee on December 3 and December 30, 2020, in addition to a digital continuing on December 10 earlier than a Georgia Home committee.
Michael Melito, an lawyer for Ellis, pushed Wooten on what proof he had that Ellis performed a job in organizing these proceedings. Wooten famous that she was current for at the very least one in every of them, although he acknowledged that she didn't testify at any of them. Wooten additionally identified that Ellis testified in an analogous legislative continuing in Colorado, the place election fraud allegations like these made in Georgia hearings had been pushed.
Ellis appeared just about on the listening to, however she didn't testify. She had obtained permission from the court docket to not attend in particular person, telling the choose in a court docket submitting that she had journey deliberate in Missouri, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC, this week.
Lammons, as he defined why he had concluded that the grand jury testimony didn't pose an undue burden on Ellis, famous that her travels on the East Coast put her nearer to Georgia than if she had been touring from Colorado.