A special grand jury that looked into the actions of former president Donald Trump and his friends to have his Georgia election loss overturned believes several witnesses lied, and it advises “suitable indictments.”
The report does not identify the people who claimed to have been misled, but the panel suggested that the district attorney “pursue appropriate prosecutions for such offenses when the evidence is persuasive.”
The report’s introduction and conclusion were made public on Thursday, in addition to the section on perjury.
Yet, for the time being, no recommendations regarding prospective criminal charges against specific individuals will be made public.
Judge Robert McBurney of Fulton County Superior Court, who headed the special grand jury, issued the partial release order on Monday.
Prosecutors begged him not to release the report until they decide on charges during a hearing last month, but a coalition of media outlets, including The Associated Press, pressed for its prompt release.
In his order, McBurney stated that it is necessary to protect the due process rights of those for whom the grand jury recommended charges, hence it is not appropriate to release the whole report.
As he tries to convince voters to send him back to the White House in 2024, the former president is facing several investigations that might have significant legal repercussions for him.
The Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis called a special grand jury to help in her investigation, but they lacked the authority to bring charges.
Instead, the report includes suggestions for Willis, who will eventually decide whether to ask a conventional grand jury to issue one or more indictments.
The grand jury heard testimony from 75 witnesses over nearly seven months, including supporters of Trump, former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and U.S. Lindsey Graham, a senator from South Carolina. Brian Kemp, the governor of Georgia, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger also spoke before the panel.
Trump, who has vehemently denied that Joe Biden won the general election in November 2020, has appeared especially upset by his defeat in Georgia and what he perceives to be a failure of Republican state elected leaders to support him.
Biden is the first Democratic presidential contender to win Georgia since 1992, where he won by around 12,000 votes.
Raffensperger and Kemp have received repeated criticism from Trump and his backers for their failure to take action to reverse his loss despite their unsubstantiated claims of massive voter fraud. Trump’s attorney general and other state and federal officials have constantly claimed that there was no major fraud and that the election was secure.
Willis has stated that she had been curious about a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which Trump told Raffensperger that he could “find” the votes required to reverse his loss in the state since the investigation’s inception two years prior.
On that call, Trump stated, “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. We won the state, so.
Trump has frequently referred to his conversation with Raffensperger as “wonderful,” and only last month, he told the Press that he was “quite optimistic” he would not face charges.
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