FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Former New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik has been subpoenaed to testify in the first Georgia election interference case trial in Fulton County this month.
In a letter from Kerik’s lawyer, Tim Parlatore, to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, Parlatore demands that Kerik be granted immunity in exchange for testifying. He says this is a reasonable request since prosecutors indicated in the indictment that Kerik was an unindicted “co-conspirator” in the case.
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Kerik was subpoenaed last week to testify in Kenneth Cheseboro and Sidney Powell’s trial on Oct. 23. He is accused of being involved in several meetings with lawmakers in Pennsylvania and Arizona, states Trump was contesting after the election in 2020.
“Mr. Kerik has done nothing wrong and rejects your claim that he is a co-conspirator in any alleged criminal conduct. As any competent criminal practitioner knows, a valid invocation of the 5th Amendment does not require actual criminality but rather the threat of possible prosecution,” Parlatore said. “Given that none of the allegations in the indictment that mention Mr. Kerik appear to involve any alleged criminal activity, I suspect this false and defamatory accusation was manufactured more for publicity purposes than back by any facts or competent legal theory.”
Parlatore confirmed with Channel 2 Action News that Kerik is co-conspirator No. 5, who was described in the initial indictment as “an attorney who assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.”
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When asked about his conversation with prosecutors, Parlatore said that Fulton County should not have publicly indicated that Kerik was a co-conspirator in the case since there was no evidence to support the claim.
“This was a PR stunt orchestrated by the [Fulton County] District Attorney’s Office,” Parlatore told Channel 2 Action News. “When I first spoke with Nathan Wade, he gave me the impression that he was a junior prosecutor just out of law school.”
Nathan Wade is a special prosecutor from the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office who is a part of the 2020 election interference case.
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“You made the public accusation, so now you must live with the consequences of Mr. Kerik (and presumably all other alleged unindicted co-conspirators) invoking their 5th Amendment rights and refusing to testify,” Parlatore wrote.
Channel 2 Action News contacted the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office for a comment but has not received a response.
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