A Fulton County grand jury said that it believed charges should be brought as part of its investigation into President Trump’s interference in the 2020 election in Georgia.
Per excerpts of a report prepared by the state grand jury that were released on Thursday, jurors said they believed that unnamed witnesses had committed perjury during the probe, which went throughout 2022.
The grand jury was empaneled before Fulton County judge Robert McBurney, and filed a report last month which provided recommendations to District Attorney Fani Willis.
Willis has been investigating Trump’s efforts to reverse his loss in Georgia.
“The Grand Jury recommends that the District Attorney seek appropriate indictments for such crimes where the evidence is compelling,” the report reads.
Jurors also reaffirmed in the report what has been known since November 2020: “that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning that election.”
McBurney on Monday ordered three segments of the report to be released: the introduction, conclusion, and a brief section discussing a finding of perjury among witnesses.
It’s not clear from the excerpt who allegedly lied to the investigation.
But the special grand jury was empaneled for two purposes: to investigate Trump’s interference in the state’s 2020 election, but also to recommend to Willis what charges she should issue, and against who.
Georgia attorneys who have observed the case, and McBurney’s discussion of what segments should be made available for public release, suggest that grand jurors did recommend indictments. Willis said at a hearing last month that her decision on indictments were “imminent,” and clarified this week that she intended the statement to be interpreted on a legal timeline, and not a news timeline.
The report provides scant detail on the course and outcome of the grand jury’s probe. At the hearing last month, McBurney suggested at one point that much of the content bears similarities to the report released by the House January 6 Committee in December.
But jurors did write that they had “heard extensive testimony on the subject of alleged election fraud from poll workers, investigators, technical experts, and State of Georgia employees and officials, as well as from persons still claiming that such fraud took
place.”
Subpoenas issued in the investigation went out to several Trump attorneys, including Rudy Giuliani and Kenneth Chesebro. Giuliani received a notice from the grand jury that he was considered a target of the investigation, his attorney told TPM last year.
Much of the grand jury’s probe appeared to focus on the role of so-called fake electors in Georgia, a group of Republican activists loyal to Trump that his campaign directed to masquerade as representing the state’s real Electoral College votes.
From page numbers included at the bottom of the excerpts, the entire report appears to be relatively brief. The conclusion ends at page 9, suggesting that that’s the total number of pages, absent exhibits.
Jurors suggest that most of the report is what Judge McBurney described as a “roster” of who should and should not be indicted, and for what reason.
“We set forth for the Court our recommendations on indictments and relevant statutes, including their votes by the Grand Jurors,” the report’s introduction reads. Jurors added that the numbers of votes cast in favor and against each indictment are included, as well as, in some cases, information explaining why a juror voted a certain way.
Read the excerpts here:
