ATLANTA — A Florida appeals court on Tuesday cleared the way for Michael Flynn, former President Donald Trump’s onetime national security adviser, to testify before a Fulton County special grand jury.
The order, from Florida’s 2nd District Court of Appeal, upholds a lower court ruling denying Flynn’s push for a stay on his appearance, which is currently scheduled for Dec. 8.
It was not immediately clear whether Flynn would appear Thursday or if the Fulton County district attorney’s office, which is advising the grand jury, would reschedule his testimony.
A spokesman for Fulton DA Fani Willis declined to comment. Flynn’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The 23-person special grand jury is investigating whether Trump or his allies criminally meddled in the administration of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election. Prosecutors have said that Flynn is one of the last remaining witnesses who has yet to testify, and they’ve indicated the grand jury is likely to wrap up its work in the weeks ahead.
The order is a victory for Willis, who has won a recent string of court fights filed by witnesses resisting their summons to come testify.
Last week, the South Carolina Supreme Court compelled former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to appear before the grand jury, putting an end to a monthslong standoff for his testimony. And the week of Thanksgiving, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., answered jurors’ questions for more than two hours after taking his challenge all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
At least one other high-profile witness is known to be fighting his grand jury summons: former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The onetime Georgia congressman, who now lives in Virginia, recently appealed a Fairfax County, Virginia, circuit court ruling that said he must testify.
For witnesses who live outside Georgia, local judges must sign off on the grand jury summons, which are technically known as certificates of material witnesses, for them to become enforceable like subpoenas.
Flynn, a former U.S. Army lieutenant general, served briefly as national security adviser under Trump in early 2017. But later that year, he pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI during special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. In November 2020, Trump granted Flynn a full pardon.
Fulton prosecutors previously said they’re interested in discussing the circumstances related to his pardon, as well as comments he made to Newsmax in late 2020 in which he said Trump could invoke martial law and seize voting machines. They also said they’d like to question Flynn about a meeting he attended at the White House in December 2020 with Trump campaign officials and attorney Sidney Powell in which those same topics were discussed.
Willis previously said she’s hoping to wrap up the grand jury’s work by the end of the calendar year. She has yet to decide whether she wants to call Trump himself to come testify, either formally or informally.
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(Atlanta Journal-Constitution staff writer Bill Rankin contributed to this article.)
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