It’s well over a year since the 2020 elections and the subsequent Republican attempted coup, and there have still been zero consequences for even the most outrageous of attempts to satisfy Donald Trump’s demands that the election’s outcome be altered on his behalf. The investigations, however, are still plodding forward. In Georgia, the Fulton County District Attorney’s office is now asking the courts to appoint a special grand jury to hear evidence pertaining to calls by Trump and Trump allies to Georgia officials asking them to “find” enough votes for Trump to overturn Biden’s state win.

As reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution,  Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis is asking the Superior Court for the special grand jury because a “significant number of witnesses and prospective witnesses have refused to cooperate with the investigation absent a subpoena.”

A “significant” number of the people who were part of those conversations, in other words, have been clamming up rather than telling investigators what they know, and Willis believes that hauling their asses in via subpoena is now the only path forward.

It’s a bit shocking that this tool is being used only now, a year and change after the alleged crime took place, but the one thing that has been demonstrated time and time again in the past decade is that anyone who can afford a top-tier lawyer can stick as many crowbars into the machinery of justice as they can write checks for.

We don’t know who’s been refusing to speak to prosecutors without a subpoena, but we do know that the participants in those calls include Sen. Lindsey Graham, Donald Trump, and Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. All three of those officials played major roles in the attempts to nullify a U.S. presidential election, and none of them will be well served by law enforcement probes of their efforts. So we can bet that those three, at least, are among the “significant” number of seditionists now trying to stonewall Georgia’s investigations.

The District Attorney’s office cannot compel witness testimony via subpoena. A grand jury, however, can. Presuming the courts approve the D.A.’s request (and it would be a new major scandal if they did not), Georgia’s investigation of the Republican requests to change presidential vote totals on Trump’s behalf is about to heat up. Finally.