ATLANTA – The judge presiding over the Georgia grand jury investigation of possible election interference in 2020 on Monday delayed the testimony of Gov. Brian Kemp until after the upcoming election as prosecutors continued to press for interviews with people close to former president Donald Trump.

After Joe Biden won Georgia in 2020, Trump and his allies tried to pressure Kemp and other Republican officials in calls to overturn the election results. Kemp resisted but also has fought a subpoena to tell the grand jury about the calls. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled Monday that Kemp must testify but pushed the governor’s appearance until “some date soon after” Election Day in November.

Kemp, who is running for reelection against Democrat Stacey Abrams, requested the delay, alleging that the investigation is politically motivated and could unfairly influence the election. Prosecutors have said that Kemp is considered a witness, not a target of the investigation.

The ruling came as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said Monday her team has completed interviews with more than half of the necessary witnesses and expects the grand jury to issue a report with recommendations before the end of the year. Willis could then decide whether to bring criminal charges.

“I’m pleased with the pace that we’re going,” she said after the ruling, while cautioning that “there can’t be any predictions. As you know, many people are unsuccessfully fighting our subpoenas. We will continue to fight to make sure that the grand jury and the public gets the truth.”

Late last week, Willis sought subpoenas for testimony from several people in Trump’s inner circle, including his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and a legal adviser who was active in Georgia, Sidney Powell.

In a separate ruling Monday, the judge ordered former Trump campaign lawyer Kenneth Chesebro to comply with a grand jury subpoena. While some of Chesebro’s communications with Trump are off-limits to questioning by prosecutors, the judge said Chesebro has relevant knowledge, for instance, based on his interactions with “individuals in Georgia seeking to prepare a slate of ‘alternate’ electors weeks after the final vote count” showed Trump losing to Biden.

As the inquiry has expanded, there have been increasing complaints that Willis, a Democrat, is politically motivated in seeking testimony from high-profile Republicans.

The judge and the district attorney’s office have each expressed sensitivity to the timing of the investigation. The judge’s decision delaying Kemp’s testimony was issued one week before Labor Day, the unofficial start of the general-election campaign season.

Willis has publicly stated that she intends to avoid grand jury activity after the start of early voting in October, “a decision made specifically to prevent election distractions,” according to a court filing from her office.

In his six-page order, the judge recognized the potential effect of the investigation on the Nov. 8 contest and said the probe should not be used by anyone – including Kemp – to influence the outcome of the election.

“The sound and prudent course is to let the election proceed without further litigation or other activity concerning the Governor’s involvement,” McBurney wrote.

The judge concluded, “Once the election is over, the Court expects the Governor’s legal team promptly to make arrangements for his appearance.”

The decision is considered a partial victory for Kemp, whose lawyers had sought to kill the subpoena or, at a minimum, delay any grand jury appearance until after the election.

In response to the ruling, Kemp’s office said the judge “correctly paused the Governor’s involvement” until after the election. “We will work with the DA’s office and the judge to ensure a full accounting of the Governor’s limited role in the issues being investigated is available to the special grand jury.”

Norman Eisen, a counsel in Trump’s first impeachment trial who has written briefs supportive of Willis’s position in the probe, praised the ruling and said it was unlikely to affect the timing of the investigation.

“It is a Solomonic resolution,” he said. “Willis gets her evidence and the governor sidesteps the political season.”

Eisen said Monday that Willis is interested in Kemp’s “firsthand evidence of what happened in Trump-Kemp contacts before she charges, so there are no surprises at trial. That can be done equally well in November.”

McBurney had previously expressed skepticism over arguments from Republicans that the prosecution was politically motivated.

“It is not my space” to focus on politics, McBurney said during a hearing last week as lawyers for Kemp argued that the subpoena had already become a political issue this election season. “I don’t think it is the right forum” to debate the political ramifications of the case, the judge said.

Melissa Redmon, assistant clinical professor at the University of Georgia School of Law, said that “McBurney is doing everything that he can to be sure that citizens have confidence in the inquiry,” including “keeping it away from electoral politics.”

McBurney had earlier blocked Willis from investigating a named target in the case because she had raised funds for his political opponent. But the judge turned back an effort to disqualify Willis from investigating other Georgia Republican targets, ruling that a prosecutor “is not automatically biased and partisan – and subject to disqualification – because of the common political affiliations of the subjects (and targets) of the investigation.”

In his order, McBurney rejected Kemp’s claim that his position as governor protects him from having to testify in what his lawyers described as a civil proceeding. McBurney emphasized that the special grand jury is unquestionably investigating possible criminal activity and that its final report will recommend whether the district attorney should file criminal charges.

Kemp’s effort to delay or block his testimony is the latest sign of tension between prosecutors and high-profile witnesses in the expansive criminal probe of alleged election interference by Trump and his allies.

Last week, a federal appeals court temporarily paused an order that would have required Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to testify before the Georgia grand jury. Graham had formally appealed a judge’s order requiring him to testify last week, saying doing so would cause “irreparable harm” that would be “in contravention of his constitutional immunity.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit temporarily put his appearance on hold, asking a lower court to consider whether Graham should be protected from answering some questions about his official duties as a U.S. senator. A federal judge set expedited deadlines to resolve the questions as soon as this week.

After seeking repeated delays, Rudy Giuliani, a former Trump lawyer, testified for six hours before the grand jury earlier this month. The panel has also heard testimony from Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, and his staff, as well as Georgia’s Republican attorney general, Christopher Carr, state legislators and local election workers.

Newly filed records showed prosecutors are seeking testimony from individuals who may expand the scope of Willis’s inquiry.

In seeking testimony from Powell, the former legal adviser to Trump, Willis specifically cites Powell’s reported efforts to obtain restricted election systems data from Coffee County, Ga., in early January 2021.

In addition to Meadows and Powell, Willis recently sought subpoenas for testimony in September from Phil Waldron, a cybersecurity expert, and Boris Epshteyn, a lawyer working with Giuliani and others who sought to organize Trump elector slates in states that Biden won.

 

Marimow and Hamburger reported from Washington. Amy B Wang contributed to this report.

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