Kemp had been scheduled for a voluntary interview in July, his lawyers said in a court filing, but the interview was “unilaterally cancelled” after Kemp’s legal team inquired about its scope. The district attorney’s office then issued a subpoena, Kemp’s lawyers said.
“Governor Kemp has ardently defended the rule of law in this state. Moreover, he welcomes opportunities to explain and defend his actions,” a court filing from Kemp’s lawyers said. “However, the Subpoena ignores — and more importantly, the DA’s Office has refused to account for — the serious privileges it implicates in relation to the testimony of a sitting governor.”
The filing also argues that the subpoena is suspiciously timed to coincide with the “crescendo” in Kemp’s reelection campaign and is not “driven by genuine investigative need for information.”
The Fulton County DA’s office declined to comment.
Kemp’s office tried to schedule the interview and expressed concerns about the upcoming election, the filing says, but found the district attorney’s office to be unresponsive.
Kemp’s office also provided over 1,000 pages of material to investigators through a Freedom of Information Act request and 137,00 pages of materials voluntarily, the filing said.
This story has been updated with additional information.
