Governor of Georgia Brian Kemp, who turned down former President Donald Trump’s request to look into election fraud in his state in 2020, claimed that Jack Smith, the special counsel, had interviewed him.
“I basically told them the same thing I told the special grand juries: that I follow the law and the Constitution and answered all their questions truthfully,” Kemp stated on CNN’s “The Source” Tuesday afternoon.
Kemp claimed that the interview was “months ago” and that it “really didn’t last that long.”
In July, a representative for Kemp informed CNN that while Smith’s office had gotten in touch with the governor, it was previously unknown that he had a meeting with the special counsel’s team.
Since then, Smith has filed federal charges against Trump, claiming that in the days preceding January 6, 2021, the former president hatched a scheme with six uncharged accomplices to tamper with the results of the 2020 election.
In 2022, Kemp also provided testimony before a special grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, as part of a different state prosecution probe into the purported attempts of Trump and his allies to rig elections.
In both cases, Trump—who is expected to be the Republican contender for president in 2024—pleaded not guilty and denied any misconduct.
“I don’t think anybody’s above the law, Democrat or Republican, independent, myself or anybody else,” Kemp responded when asked about Trump’s assertions of presidential immunity for acts made while he was in office.
Trump requested a temporary stay of a federal appeals court ruling that denied his claim of presidential immunity from prosecution for actions taken during his administration.
Due to a conflict of interest, Trump and his co-defendants requested that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis be removed from the Georgia election interference case by Judge Scott McAfee.
Kemp sidestepped a question about whether Willis should be fired by pointing to the fact that he was a witness in the state grand jury investigation and stating he didn’t “want to speak too much” about it.
Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she assigned to the case, is the target of accusations from Trump and his co-defendants against the embattled district attorney, claiming she had an illegal intimate relationship with him and benefited financially from it.
Wade and Willis gave sworn testimony last week regarding their affair. Willis retaliated vehemently to the alleged “lies” regarding the connection. Wade attempted to minimize the situation by portraying Willis and himself as private individuals.
“We’ve had a political process there that, believe it or not, has gotten more political and we certainly saw that last week,” Kemp stated to CNN.