U.S. President Donald Trump attends a campaign rally for Republican U.S. senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, ahead of their January runoff elections to find out control of the U.S. Senate, in Valdosta, Georgia, U.S., December 5, 2020.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
A judge in Georgia is ready Thursday to publicly disclose portions of a special grand jury’s final report on its investigation into possible election interference by former President Donald Trump and his allies.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney earlier this week ordered the discharge of the report’s introduction and conclusion, in addition to a bit detailing jurors’ concerns that some witnesses can have lied under oath.
Those sections “are ripe for publication” because they do not discover any witnesses, McBurney said in an order Monday. He delayed their release until Thursday so as to give the parties involved time to debate possible redactions.
The complete report will include recommendations on whether anyone should face criminal charges related to Georgia’s 2020 election. But that portion won’t be released publicly — a minimum of not yet, McBurney said.
He has directed the office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to supply periodic updates concerning the status of its probe so he can reassess if other parts of the ultimate report “will be properly disclosed.”
The choice on whether or to not issue indictments falls to Willis, whose investigation is ongoing.
The special grand jury was seated last May to analyze possible efforts to disrupt the 2020 elections in Georgia, and to recommend whether anyone needs to be criminally prosecuted.
After sifting through evidence and hearing testimony from dozens of witnesses — including multiple Trump allies, reminiscent of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. — the grand jury in December submitted its final report, recommending that it’s published.
“Having reviewed the ultimate report, the undersigned concludes that the special purpose grand jury didn’t exceed the scope of its prescribed mission,” McBurney wrote in Monday’s order. “Indeed it provided the District Attorney’s office with exactly what she requested: a roster of who should (or mustn’t) be indicted, and for what, in relation to the conduct (and aftermath) of the 2020 general election in Georgia.”
But he decided that disclosure of your entire report “presently isn’t proper,” citing due process concerns.
Georgia was one in all several key swing states that narrowly voted for President Joe Biden, then the Democratic nominee, over Trump within the 2020 presidential election. Trump falsely claimed he won the election and asserted that the consequence had been “rigged” against him, citing a plethora of unfounded conspiracy theories about widespread electoral fraud.
Trump, his allies and his legal team sought to overturn his loss to Biden in the final election by difficult the ends in Georgia and other key states.
A flurry of lawsuits filed in late 2020 by Trump’s campaign were almost entirely rejected within the courts. In early January 2021, Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, and urged him to “find” enough votes in his favor to reverse his loss within the Peach State.
Raffensperger refused, and the state’s electoral votes ultimately went to Biden — after a violent mob of Trump’s supporters, spurred by his false election claims, had been cleared from the U.S. Capitol.
Trump was impeached within the House for fomenting the riot, then acquitted within the Senate. In February 2021, Willis opened an investigation into Trump’s call to Raffensperger.
That is developing news. Please check back for updates.
