Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is seen in a vehicle outside his apartment building after his law license was suspended in Manhattan in New York City
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is seen in a vehicle outside his apartment building after his law license was suspended in Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S., June 24, 2021.

Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump's onetime personal lawyer, testified before a special grand jury in Atlanta on Wednesday in a Georgia criminal probe examining attempts by the former U.S. president and his allies to overturn the 2020 election results.

Giuliani, who helped lead Trump's election challenges, spent more than six hours in the Fulton County courthouse after a judge ordered him to comply with a subpoena. His lawyers, who declined to comment on his testimony, said he would refuse to answer questions that violate attorney-client privilege.

The former New York City mayor, 78, appeared before Georgia state lawmakers in December 2020, echoing Trump's false conspiracy theories about stolen ballots and urging them not to certify Democratic President Joe Biden's victory over the Republican Trump.

"It's a grand jury and grand juries, as I recall, are secret," Giuliani told CNN on his arrival at the courthouse, when asked to comment on his testimony. "They ask the questions and we'll see."

Giuliani left the courthouse through one of the building's side entrances, local media in Atlanta reported.

"We were ordered to be here, we showed up, we did what we have to do," said Giuliani's lawyer, Bill Thomas. "The special grand jury process is a secret process, and we're gonna respect that process."

The Fulton County probe began after a January 2021 recorded phone call in which Trump urged the state's top election official to "find" enough votes to alter the outcome. The former president has asserted falsely that he won Georgia, as well as the 2020 presidential contest.

The special grand jury was convened in May at the request of county District Attorney Fani Willis.

Giuliani, a former crime-fighting U.S. Attorney, was among several Trump advisers and lawyers who received subpoenas from the grand jury last month, including U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

(Writing by Rami Ayyub, editing by Ross Colvin, Howard Goller and Deepa Babington)

Rudy Giuliani arrives at a courthouse in Atlanta
Rudy Giuliani, former U.S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, arrives at a courthouse to face a special grand jury regarding a probe into the 2020 election in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. August 17, 2022 in a still image from video.