Brian Kemp testifies in grand jury probe of Trump’s efforts to overturn Georgia election results

Donald Trump’s Tuesday night, November 15 announcement that he plans to seek the 2024 GOP presidential nomination comes at a time when the former president is facing a variety of investigations, from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to New York State Attorney General Letitia James to Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis. Some of the Trump-related probes are civil; others are criminal, including Willis’.

The Fulton County DA is conducting a criminal investigation of Trump and his allies’ efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia, one of the swing states that President Joe Biden won. So far, Willis’ investigation has not resulted in any type of indictment for Trump or any of his allies.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp plays an important role in Willis’ probe, as he was among the conservative Republicans who famously pushed back against the Big Lie, acknowledged that Biden won Georgia fair and square, and favored the certification of Biden’s Electoral College victory in the Peach State.

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On November 15, according to NBC News reporters Summer Concepcion and Blayne Alexander, Kemp “testified…. before the special grand jury” in Georgia that is “investigating possible 2020 election inference by former President Donald Trump and his allies.”

“The grand jury, impaneled as part of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ investigation into the 2020 election, is interested in speaking with Kemp about alleged efforts by Trump White House officials and allies to pressure him into overturning the results in the battleground state amid the then-president’s false claims of widespread election fraud,” Concepcion and Alexander explain in an article published by NBC News’ website on November 15. “Kemp became a target of Trump's ire after the governor resisted pressure to overturn the election, including pushing back on the then-president’s demand to convene a special session of the state legislature to reverse Joe Biden’s victory in the state.”

Trump, Concepcion and Alexander note, has vehemently attacked Kemp and told Fox News he was “ashamed” that he endorsed Kemp’s gubernatorial campaign in 2018.

Regardless, 2022 has been a great year politically for Kemp, who was aggressively challenged by Trump-backed former Sen. David Perdue in a Republican gubernatorial primary. Perdue campaigned on the Big Lie, making the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump and relentlessly attacking Kemp for saying otherwise. But Perdue’s Senate campaign went down in flames when Kemp defeated him by a staggering 52 percent in that primary.

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Kemp entered the general election with considerable momentum, taking on Democrat Stacey Abrams in the general election. Abrams is a major rock star in the Democratic Party, but in the end, Kemp defeated her by 8 percent. Although Trump has often slammed Kemp as a RINO (Republican In Name Only), that didn’t prevent the conservative Georgia governor from defeating a well-known Democrat who has a lot of clout in her party. In contrast, a long list of Trump-backed MAGA candidates and election deniers — from Kari Lake in Arizona to Tudor Dixon in Michigan to Dan Cox in Maryland — went down in defeat in the 2022 midterms.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, another conservative non-MAGA Republican who Trump has lambasted for rejecting the Big Lie, also enjoyed a decisive reelection victory on November 8. Raffensperger and members of his family have been facing death threats from Trump supporters for maintaining that Biden legitimately won Georgia in 2020.

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