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(ATLANTA) — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has provided testimony to the grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state, according to Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB.

Kemp’s testimony was recorded remotely and then presented to the jury Monday, WSB reported.

Evidence from his office was also due to the grand jury Monday.

A spokesperson for Kemp told ABC News, “Out of respect for the grand jury process, we will not provide any comment until the proceedings are complete.”

According to a copy of the subpoena obtained by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Fulton County district attorney’s office was specifically seeking “any document that explains what former President Trump was thinking or doing or those working on his behalf.”

The subpoena was also seeking “logs of the telephone calls from former President Trump or anyone representing him or his interest,” the AJC reported.

Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both Republicans, resisted pressure from Trump to “find” enough votes to swing the election in his favor, as the then-president requested during his now-infamous January 2021 phone call.

Kemp’s testimony to the grand jury was delivered on the same day the judge overseeing the probe disqualified Fulton County DA Fani Willis from investigating one of the state’s 16 alleged “fake electors,” because the DA held a fundraiser for his political opponent. Georgia state Sen.

Burt Jones, currently the GOP candidate for lieutenant governor, was one of the 16 alleged “fake electors” identified last week as a target of the Georgia probe.

The alleged fake electors were said to be part of a Trump campaign effort that assembled “groups of individuals in key battleground states and got them to call themselves electors, created phony certificates associated with these fake electors and then transmitted these certificates to Washington, and to the Congress, to be counted during the joint session of Congress on January 6th,” according to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

The grand jury in the Fulton County probe does not have the ability to return an indictment, and can only make recommendations concerning criminal prosecution. Another grand jury would be needed in order to bring any charges.

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(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., confirmed that he attended his gay son’s wedding on Friday — just days after voting against a bill that would codify federal protections for same-sex marriage.

“Congressman and Mrs. Thompson were thrilled to attend and celebrate their son’s marriage on Friday night as he began this new chapter in his life. The Thompsons are very happy to welcome their new son-in-law into their family,” Thompson spokeswoman Maddison Stone told ABC News in a statement late Monday.

Stone did not directly respond to further questions about Thompson’s attendance in light of his vote on the marriage legislation.

Thompson was one of 157 House Republicans to vote against the proposal last week, which Democrats had pushed following the Supreme Court’s decision to scrap constitutional protections for abortion access.

In a statement to the local newspaper Centre Daily, Stone called the bill “nothing more than an election-year messaging stunt for Democrats in Congress who have failed to address historic inflation and out of control prices at gas pumps and grocery stores.”

The legislation was sparked by Justice Clarence Thomas’s supporting opinion in the ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. Thomas wrote that the high court should revisit past decisions protecting same-sex marriage and contraception access.

Forty-seven House Republicans ultimately voted in favor of the marriage bill, and Senate Democrats are trying to cobble together the 10 Republicans they’d need to overcome a filibuster in the upper chamber and send the legislation to President Joe Biden’s desk.

Same-sex marriage has long been a contentious topic for Republicans. The most recent party platform, which was enacted in 2016 and renewed in 2020, states that marriage is between a man and a woman, though polling shows the majority of Americans – including a majority of Republicans – support same-sex marriage.

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(WASHINGTON) — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol is in active discussions with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for his testimony behind closed doors, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.

Pompeo is tentatively scheduled to speak with the committee in the coming days, sources said.

The recent outreach to Pompeo is an indication of the committee’s continuing interest in gathering information and testimony from high-level Trump administration officials as it moves toward the release of a public report on its findings this fall.

A lawyer for Pompeo declined to comment, as did a spokesperson for the Jan. 6 committee.

According to Cassidy Hutchinson, who was a top aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Pompeo called Meadows on Jan. 6 to alert him that discussions were happening within the Cabinet about invoking the 25th Amendment as a vehicle to remove Trump from office.

“And from what I understand, it was more of a — this is what I’m hearing, I want you to be aware of it, but I also think it’s worth putting on your radar because you are the chief of staff,” Hutchinson recalled Pompeo telling Meadows in her testimony before the Jan. 6 panel. “You’re technically the boss of all the cabinet secretaries. And you know if the conversations progressed you should be ready to take action on this.”

In his book Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show, ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl wrote that Pompeo and then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin discussed the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment. Pompeo has denied that conversation occurred.

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(WASHINGTON) — A Senate investigation revealed evidence on Tuesday of widespread corruption and misconduct dating back years at a federal penitentiary in Atlanta.

At a hearing Tuesday morning, an investigatory panel led by Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff intends to press outgoing Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Director Michael Carvajal on agency records that show staff at the Atlanta federal penitentiary “acted with impunity and even lacked regard for human life,” Ossoff said in his opening statement.

The prison was rife with contraband, including weapons and synthetic cannabis, and large amounts of confiscated drugs were never logged after they were discovered, according to Ossoff.

A lack of security checks also allowed inmates to pass contraband between cells and freely use narcotics, Ossoff said.

Internal reports from 2017 and 2019, now revealed by the committee, found prison guard weapons were improperly stored and at times went missing.

The findings documented by the panel — an investigatory arm of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee — include allegations of poorly maintained and often dangerous conditions for inmates. Between 2012 to 2020, a total of 12 inmates died by suicide which the committee linked to a lack of compliance by staff to prison procedures and “complacency, indifference, inattentiveness, and lack of compliance with BOP policies and procedures,” according to Ossoff.

After Carvajal initially declined to testify, the subcommittee subpoenaed him; he announced his retirement at the beginning of the year and plans to leave BOP in August, when his successor takes over.

The U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta has been under public scrutiny for years. An inmate and his fiancée pleaded guilty in 2017 to running what prosecutors described as an “inmate Uber.” The two admitted to transporting convicts to and from the prison, allowing them access to outside food and contraband.

Last year, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that four senior prison officers were banned from the facility amid a corruption investigation and the prison’s population was reduced from more than 1,800 to 134.

The Senate panel on Tuesday will also hear witness testimony from the facility’s former chief psychologist and jail administrator.

Representatives with the BOP and the Atlanta penitentiary did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

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(WASHINGTON) — A Senate investigation revealed evidence on Tuesday of widespread corruption and misconduct dating back years at a federal penitentiary in Atlanta.

At a hearing Tuesday morning, an investigatory panel led by Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff intends to press outgoing Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Director Michael Carvajal on agency records that show staff at the Atlanta federal penitentiary “acted with impunity and even lacked regard for human life,” Ossoff said in his opening statement.

“The evidence the [subcommittee for investigations] has secured to date reveals stunning long-term failures of federal prison administration that likely contributed to loss of life; jeopardized the health and safety of inmates and staff; and undermined public safety and civil rights in the State of Georgia and the Southeast Region of the United States,” Ossoff said.

The prison was rife with contraband, including weapons and synthetic cannabis, and large amounts of confiscated drugs were never logged after they were discovered, according to Ossoff and the subcommittee’s review of internal BOP documents in addition to interviews with whistleblowers, federal judges and former senior agency leaders.

A lack of security checks also allowed inmates to pass contraband between cells and freely use narcotics, Ossoff said.

The findings documented by the panel — an investigatory arm of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee — include allegations of poorly maintained and often dangerous conditions for inmates. Between 2012 to 2020, a total of 12 inmates died by suicide which the committee linked to a lack of compliance by staff to prison procedures and “complacency, indifference, inattentiveness, and lack of compliance with BOP policies and procedures,” according to Ossoff.

Internal reports from 2017 and 2019, now revealed by the committee, found prison guard weapons were improperly stored and at times went missing.

Erika Ramirez, a whistleblower and former chief psychologist of the Atlanta facility, testified on Tuesday to a variety of unsafe and unsanitary conditions as well as a lack of control over contraband.

“The walls were infested with mold,” Ramirez said. “Whenever it rained, the sewer would break — would back up and overflow onto the recreation yard, sometimes leaving a foot of human waste behind. Security-wise, there was little to speak of. Given the volume and flagrancy of the contraband, it was obvious that cell searches were not being properly conducted, if at all.”

Ramirez testified that she documented her findings and reported them to upper management and, in some cases, to the BOP central office in Washington. Ramirez was subsequently, involuntarily transferred to a facility in Texas in what she described as retaliation for speaking out.

Former jail administrator Terri Whitehead also appeared at Tuesday’s hearing and said unsanitary conditions at the prison resulted in security lapses.

“For example, there was so many rats inside the facility, dining hall and food preparation areas that staff intentionally left doors open so the stray cats that hung around the prison could catch the rats,” Whitehead said. “It is never a good idea to leave prison doors open.”

After BOP Director Carvajal initially declined to testify, the subcommittee subpoenaed him; he announced his retirement at the beginning of the year and plans to leave BOP in August, when his successor takes over.

The U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta has been under public scrutiny for years. An inmate and his fiancée pleaded guilty in 2017 to running what prosecutors described as an “inmate Uber.” The two admitted to transporting convicts to and from the prison, allowing them access to outside food and contraband.

Last year, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that four senior prison officers were banned from the facility amid a corruption investigation and the prison’s population was reduced from more than 1,800 to 134.

Representatives with the BOP and the Atlanta penitentiary did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump returns to Washington on Tuesday for the first time since leaving office in the shadow of the Capitol insurrection to deliver remarks to ultra-conservative allies at the America First Agenda Summit.

Trump’s return, at a two-day conference hosted by the America First Policy Institute, a MAGA-aligned group formed when he took office, comes as he publicly teases a 2024 presidential run — and amid a congressional investigation into his actions surrounding the deadly rioting last year by his supporters at the Capitol, which led to his historic second impeachment. (He denies wrongdoing.)

Other prominent conservatives slated to speak Tuesday include House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California; Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La.; Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-Ga.; Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah; former White House aide Kellyanne Conway and GOP ally Newt Gingrich, all of whom have attacked the House Jan. 6 committee and its vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.

With Cheney vowing the committee will hold more hearings in the fall, saying, “The dam has begun to break,” the panel also weighs whether to send a criminal referral to the Justice Department.

A referral is not required for federal authorities to charge Trump himself, nor will one guarantee such a move. But public hearings outlining Trump’s “seven-point plan” to overturn the 2020 presidential election have amped up pressure on Attorney General Merrick Garland to bring a federal criminal case against Trump — which would be the first in history against a former president.

Trump is already facing a civil investigation in New York, by state Attorney General Letitia James, into his family’s real estate business practices; she has argued her office found “significant evidence” of fraud and Trump and some of his children are set to be deposed by investigators. (Trump has claimed James is politically motivated.)

Separately, Sen. Graham, only after a subpoena, will appear before a grand jury in Georgia as part of the Fulton County district attorney’s ongoing investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in the state.

The simultaneous probes show how Trump’s legal problems continue to loom over a possible 2024 comeback bid.

The only modern president who has refused to concede defeat, Trump can be expected to lament his 2020 election loss in his address on Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET, though organizers said in a release that his speech will be focused on “America First” policy.

But on the eve of Trump’s return, it was his former Vice President Mike Pence who intended to take the attention of the Republican Party, planning to tout his “Freedom Agenda” in remarks on Monday at the Heritage Foundation that were ultimately canceled due to weather.

Pence remains scheduled to speak before the Young America’s Foundation’s student conference on Tuesday.

Pence and Trump’s appearances further highlight their estrangement-turned-rivalry, as both have thrown their support behind competing candidates in state primary races. In Arizona last week, Pence joined a term-limited Gov. Doug Ducey to rally for Karrin Taylor Robson, widely seen as the establishment GOP candidate in the open race for Ducey’s seat; while Trump campaigned for Kari Lake, a former TV reporter-turned-“Ultra MAGA mom.”

In May, Pence and Trump stumped for opposing candidates in the GOP primary to be Georgia’s governor, with the Pence-backed incumbent, Brian Kemp, soaring to victory over Trump’s pick, former Sen. David Perdue.

Last week in Maryland, Trump’s pick, state Del. Dan Cox — who criticized (and then apologized for criticizing) Pence as a “traitor” after Pence didn’t reject the 2020 results — won the GOP governor’s primary, to the ire of term-limited Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who backed a more moderate candidate and appears to have presidential aspirations himself.

Hogan told ABC News’ This Week co-anchor Jonathan Karl on Sunday that some in the Republican Governors Association were “very concerned” about Trump potentially launching a 2024 presidential bid before November’s midterm races, which Hogan said could upend contests across the country.

“I think most people are very concerned about the damage it does to the party if he announces now,” he said. “And it may help in very red states or very red districts. But in competitive places and purple battlefields, it’s going to cost us seats if he were to do that.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Marc Short, the former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, appeared before a federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Short confirmed to ABC News.

Short, in an interview Monday night with ABC News’ Linsey Davis, said he was subpoenaed by a grand jury and complied with the subpoena, adding he “really can’t comment further than that” upon the advice of his legal counsel.

ABC News first reported early Monday that Short had appeared last week before the grand jury.

Short was caught by an ABC News camera departing D.C. District Court on Friday alongside his attorney, Emmet Flood.

Short is the highest-ranking Trump White House official known to have appeared before the grand jury.

“I think that having the Capitol ransacked the way that it was, I think did present liability and danger,” he told Davis in the interview. “And I think the Secret Service did a phenomenal job that day. I think that the bigger risk and despite the way perhaps it was characterized in the hearings last week, candidly, is that if the mob had gotten closer to the vice president, I do think there would have been a massacre in the Capitol that day.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment to ABC News.

Pence’s former chief counsel, Greg Jacob, also testified before the grand jury, sources familiar with his appearance told ABC News.

Neither Jacob nor his attorney responded to a request for comment from ABC News.

Jacob testified publicly during a recent public hearing of the Jan. 6 committee.

In March, the Department of Justice expanded its criminal probe into the events of Jan. 6 to include preparations for the rally that preceded the storming of the Capitol, as well as the financing for the event, multiple sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

Grand jury subpoenas were sent to those who assisted in the organizing and planning of former President Donald Trump’s “Save America” rally on the Ellipse near the White House, the sources said, with prosecutors seeking multiple records and documents related to the rally, including text messages and emails, as well as potential communications with other individuals regarding the logistics of the event.

“There is a lot of speculation about what the Justice Department is doing, what’s it not doing, what our theories are and what our theories aren’t, and there will continue to be that speculation,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press briefing last week. “We have to hold accountable every person who is criminally responsible for trying to overturn a legitimate election, and we must do it in a way filled with integrity and professionalism.”

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack has played numerous clips from Short’s deposition with committee investigators during its public hearings.

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(WASHINGTON) — Roughly $343 million will be made available to transit agencies this year to make subway and rail stations more accessible to those with disabilities, the Biden administration announced Tuesday.

The tranche of funds comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and will be allotted to transit agencies across the country to retrofit rail and subway stations for wheelchair use, officials said.

“Everyone should be able to get to work easily, everyone should be able to get to the people in places they love and the activities that bring them joy,” Mitch Landrieu, senior adviser and infrastructure coordinator, said during a call with reporters. “Accessibility should never be a barrier.”

Officials said there are approximately 900 stations across the country that are without elevators and ramps, and therefore not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Officials said these stations were constructed before the passing of the ADA in 1990.

“For many people who use a wheelchair or are blind or low vision, or just have a bad knee or [are] coming out of the surgery, or older folks who have trouble getting up and down stairs, this often means that affordable public transportation by rail is not an option,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. “That is not right, it is not fair.”

The funding will total $1.75 billion over the next five years to make these stations more accessible, the officials said.

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