CNN —
The Atlanta grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election reversal plots will run into legislative privilege issues if it asks subpoenaed Georgia lawmakers about communication with other legislative members or their staff, a state court judge said Friday.
But the judge signaled he’d likely greenlight certain questions about the lawmakers’ third-party communications.
Fulton Superior Court Judge Robert C. I. McBurney was hearing a motion put forward by members of Georgia’s legislature seeking to quash a subpoena in the grand jury’s investigation.
During a hearing on the motion, McBurney said he wanted to offer general guidelines for what kinds of testimony would be protected by legislative privilege or immunity. The judge did not issue a formal ruling laying out that guidance, but said he would do so soon, as some of the subpoenas are for appearances requested in mid-July.
“If the grand jury is investigating alleged criminal actions by third parties – not the witnesses – then if their exploration leads to questions of a legislator or her staff members about communications with people outside that legislative sphere that are related to the investigation, I believe those are not protected by legislative immunity,” McBurney said at the hearing.
The subpoena fight emerges from the investigation Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has launched into former President Donald Trump’s election subversion gambits in Georgia.
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