Trump Lawyer Boris Epshteyn Appears Before Atlanta Grand Jury
Boris Epshteyn, one of former President Donald J. Trump’s most prominent attorneys, testified Thursday before a special grand jury in Atlanta that was convened as part of a criminal investigation into election interference by Trump and his allies.
Epshteyn played a central role in efforts to keep Trump in power despite his loss in the 2020 election. He now serves as the former president’s in-house counsel and helps coordinate the Trump team’s various legal defense efforts; A separate federal investigation into Mr. Trump’s mishandling of classified documents is ongoing, along with the investigation by the Congressional committee investigating the attack on Capitol Hill by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021.
The grand jury appearance was the latest legal complication for Epshteyn, one of several Trump attorneys who have faced an avalanche of criminal and civil complaints. Earlier this month, federal investigators seized Mr. Epshteyn’s cell phone as part of another federal investigation, this one into attempts to overturn election results and the Jan. 6 storming of Capitol Hill.
His attorney did not return calls for comment.
The investigation is being led by Fani T. Willis, district attorney for Fulton County, which includes most of Atlanta. Ms. Willis is weighing possible conspiracy and racketeering charges in the investigation, among others, documents show. Her office is known to have already identified nearly 20 targets who could face criminal charges, including Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trump’s former personal attorney. It is not clear whether Mr. Epshteyn also faces a potential legal risk in the case or whether he is appearing solely as a witness.
As part of her investigation, Ms. Willis examined the phone call that Mr. Trump made on January 2, 2021, to Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, imploring him to find almost 12,000 votes, or enough to reverse the result. . on her behalf. She also seeks to question Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina about previous calls he made to Mr. Raffensperger.
And he’s scrutinizing Republicans who put together a fake list of voters in an effort to thwart the outcome of the popular vote in Georgia. Mr. Epshteyn played a leading role in that effort. In filings earlier this year seeking to force his testimony, Ms. Willis’s office said that Mr. Epshteyn “possesses unique insight into the logistics, planning and execution of the Trump campaign’s efforts to present fake voting certificates to former Vice President Michael Pence and others.”
His office highlighted an interview Mr. Epshteyn did with MSNBC in January, when he said that it was “part of the process, to ensure that there would be substitute voters for when, as we hoped, the challenges to the seated voters would be heard and prospered.”
Mr. Epshteyn was also subpoenaed this year by the January 6 committee, which noted that he had “participated in attempts to disrupt or delay the certification of election results” and “participated in a call with former President Trump at the morning of January 1. 6, during which options to delay certification of election results were discussed in light of Vice President Pence’s unwillingness to deny or delay certification.”