By Joseph Ax
(Reuters) - Mark Meadows, Donald Trump's former White House chief of staff, was ordered by a South Carolina judge on Wednesday to testify in a Georgia criminal probe investigating whether the former president and his allies broke the law by trying to overturn the 2020 election, according to media reports.
Meadows had asked a judge in South Carolina, where he resides, to quash a petition seeking his testimony issued by a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, where the district attorney's office is overseeing the investigation.
The court hearing took place in Pickens County, South Carolina, where Meadows resides, because the Fulton County grand jury technically needs a local judge to approve witness subpoenas for out-of-state residents.
Meadows, a former North Carolina congressman, was on the phone when Trump called Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, in January 2021 and unsuccessfully urged him to "find" enough votes to reverse Joe Biden's statewide victory. Trump has continued to claim falsely that the results were tainted by voter fraud, even after dozens of courts rejected his allegations.
Meadows' lawyer, James Bannister, had argued that the grand jury is civil in nature, not criminal, and thus cannot compel his client's testimony. That argument has been rejected by the Georgia state judge overseeing the grand jury, but some Texas judges have recently suggested they agree following a similar challenge from several witnesses who reside there.
Circuit Court Judge Edward Miller, however, ruled that Meadows is a "necessary and material witness" and must testify, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper reported.
Bannister was not immediately available for comment.
The grand jury probe has already ensnared a number of inner-circle Trump allies, including his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who testified before the grand jury in August and has been informed he is a target of the investigation.
The petition seeking Meadows' testimony noted that in addition to the Raffensperger call, he also attended a White House meeting in December 2020 with members of Congress to discuss allegations of voter fraud.
Trump faces several other inquiries, including a Justice Department investigation into whether he illegally mishandled classified documents.