ATLANTA — Rudolph W. Giuliani, the lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump and a central determine within the investigation into election interference in Georgia, has been telling prosecutors that he can not journey to the state to look earlier than a particular grand jury as a result of he’s not wholesome sufficient to fly.

However on Tuesday, a decide in Fulton County, Ga., mentioned that Mr. Giuliani, who had two coronary coronary heart stents implanted in early July, might journey from New York to Atlanta another means, and tentatively ordered him to indicate as much as ship in-person testimony on Aug. 17.

“Mr. Giuliani isn’t cleared for air journey, A-I-R,” Choose Robert C.I. McBurney of Fulton County Superior Court docket mentioned. “John Madden drove all around the nation in his massive bus, from stadium to stadium. So one factor we have to discover is whether or not Mr. Giuliani might get right here with out jeopardizing his restoration and his well being. On a practice, on a bus or Uber, or no matter it might be,” he mentioned, including, “New York isn’t near Atlanta, nevertheless it’s not touring from Fairbanks.”

In a listening to on Tuesday afternoon, the decide additionally advised prosecutors they need to let Mr. Giuliani, 78, know whether or not he was a goal of the felony investigation. The workplace of Fani T. Willis, the Atlanta-area district lawyer, has already advised at the very least 17 different individuals, together with a pair of state senators and the pinnacle of the state Republican Social gathering, that they’re targets.

If Mr. Giuliani is taken into account to be a goal, that might immediate him to invoke his Fifth Modification proper and decline to offer testimony after probably making a prolonged street journey. Letting Mr. Giuliani know upfront, the decide mentioned, would give some readability on “what affect that has on the extent of his time in entrance of the grand jury.”

The decide additionally mentioned he might rethink the Aug. 17 date if Mr. Giuliani’s physician produced a sufficiently compelling medical excuse.

William H. Thomas Jr., a lawyer for Mr. Giuliani, mentioned within the listening to that his consumer could be open to a distant interview through Zoom. Nathan Wade, a particular prosecutor working for the district lawyer, mentioned the workplace was not and most popular that Mr. Giuliani seem in individual.

Mr. Giuliani’s function within the effort to reverse Mr. Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia is of curiosity to Fulton County prosecutors for plenty of causes. As a part of the closed-door grand jury proceedings, they’ve questioned a number of witnesses about Mr. Giuliani’s appearances earlier than a pair of state legislative panels after the 2020 vote, wherein he made plenty of false allegations of election fraud. Mr. Giuliani, the previous New York mayor, additionally participated in a scheme to create slates of faux, pro-Trump presidential electors in plenty of swing states. The convening of those electors in Georgia is one other topic of Ms. Willis’s investigation.

Mr. Giuliani’s legal professionals had sought to delay any in-person look in Atlanta and produced a health care provider’s word this week advising him to not fly anyplace due to the stent process. Ms. Willis countered that Mr. Giuliani had lately traveled out of state to New Hampshire and had additionally bought airplane tickets to Europe.

Mr. Giuliani’s legal professionals mentioned that he had traveled out of state by automobile and that the airplane tickets had been bought by the planners of a convention that was in the end canceled. (“No such journey ever occurred,” Mr. Giuliani’s legal professionals mentioned in court docket paperwork.)

Choose McBurney mentioned Mr. Giuliani had loads of time to get from New York to Atlanta, suggesting that he might break up a 13-hour street journey into segments. “Possibly he goes right down to Washington, as the primary half, and reconnects with individuals there, after which travels one other few hours.”