- Rudy Giuliani didn't appear in front of a grand jury in Georgia on Tuesday due to medical issues.
- A doctor wrote a note saying Giuliani wasn't cleared for air travel after heart surgery.
- A state judge suggested he make a road trip instead of traveling by plane to testify in Fulton County's election probe.
A Georgia state judge had an idea for how Rudy Giuliani could testify in Georgia after the Trump ally said he couldn't make it due to a medical condition: turn it into a road trip.
Giuliani — who had been ordered to appear before a grand jury as part of Fulton County prosecutors' investigation into 2020 election meddling — didn't appear in court on Tuesday after a doctor's note said he couldn't travel by plane.
So Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney suggested Giuliani travel on "a train, on a bus or Uber or whatever" to arrive in court by August 17.
"I'm confident he can figure out a way — short of a Greyhound — to get him to Atlanta," McBurney said during a hearing Tuesday with Giuliani's lawyers and state prosecutors. "Do it in 3 legs. [Do] you know folks in DC? Spend the night there."
The grand jury is investigating whether former President Donald Trump and his allies tried to interfere in the 2020 general election results in the state.
Giuliani's lawyer, William Thomas Jr., said the former New York mayor and Trump lawyer underwent surgery to implant heart stents at the beginning of July which is what is stopping him from getting on a plane.
His lawyers offered for Giuliani to call in via Zoom or meet with prosecutors in New York, but both options were turned down by Fulton Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade in court.
The back and forth over Giuliani's appearance started when last week his lawyers contacted Georgia prosecutors saying a recent medical procedure would stop him from traveling to the hearing, according to court records.
McBurney excused him from the originally scheduled testimony, but called Tuesday's hearing in its place.
Prosecutors submitted evidence they said showed that Giuliani was OK to travel to the hearing. They shared documents showing Giuliani purchased airline tickets to Rome, Italy, and Zurich, Switzerland for flights between July 22 and July 29 — after his medical procedure.
On Tuesday, his lawyers said "no such travel ever occurred," and that he had been invited to a conference overseas so "presumably," organizers or another party bought the tickets on his behalf.
He was scheduled to give a speech in Rome, but they canceled the appearance "based solely on his health."
Prosecutors also included a screenshot of an August 1 tweet that shows Giuliani in New Hampshire. Thomas said he traveled to the state "by a private car in which he was the passenger."
Giuliani was one of Trump's allies who create so-called alternate slates of pro-Trump electors in an effort to change the results of the election in states the former president lost in 2020 — one of them being Georgia.