A special investigative grand jury that spent nearly eight months examining efforts to overturn Georgia's 2020 presidential election recommended prosecutors seek charges against former President Donald Trump, according to the jury's full report released Friday.
Trump is one of 19 people that were charged with racketeering and other state law violations last month in what Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis alleges was a vast conspiracy to undo Trump's election loss and unlawfully pressure officials to change the outcome.
The special grand jury that met in 2022 was a rarely used investigative body, able to issue subpoenas for documents and witness testimony but not able to issue indictments. Instead, their nine-page report provided recommendations to the DA about who she should bring charges against before a regular grand jury.
The special panel, which interviewed more than 75 witnesses but did not have the power to issue indictments, alleged that 39 different people violated more than a dozen state laws, including making false statements and writings, solicitation of election fraud and Georgia’s sweeping anti-racketeering law.
Several high-profile Republicans found in the jury’s report did not face charges in the 98-page indictment handed up in Fulton County last month, such as former U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, current U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, attorneys Lin Wood and Cleta Mitchell and others involved in the months long multifaceted effort to undo Trump’s narrow loss in Georgia.
Perdue and Loeffler called for Raffensperger to resign and made false claims about Georgia’s election results before losing in a January 2021 runoff that saw some conservative voters stay home because of those claims. Graham called Raffensperger after the election and discussed whether the secretary of state could reject certain absentee ballots.
The SPGJ also recommended seeking indictments against several individuals that were ultimately not charged by the DA, including former state Sen. William Ligon; attorneys Cleta Mitchell, Jacki Pick, Lin Wood, Boris Epshteyn Kurt Hilbert and Alex Kaufman; and former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
While the special jury's investigation report recommended those individuals face charges, it was up to Willis to present any charges and a regular grand jury to vote on them, and those individuals being named does not mean that they necessarily committed any state law violations.
Many of the findings in the brief report mirrors the actual indictments brought by prosecutors against the former president and his allies, such as recommending Trump face charges for his call to Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asking him to "find" votes.
In addition to the Trump-Raffensperger call, the special jury recommended charges stemming from "persistent, repeated communications directed to multiple Georgia officials and employees;" efforts to harass and coerce a Fulton County poll worker into falsely admitting she committed election fraud; a scheme to have 16 Republicans falsely claim to be Georgia’s official electors; unlawful access of election equipment in rural Coffee County; a series of legislative hearings where false claims were made about the state’s election results, and the national effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia and other swing states.
Judge Robert McBurney ordered a limited release of the report in February, only allowing the introduction, conclusion and a section detailing concerns about witnesses lying under oath to be made public. McBurney wrote that those sections did not violate due process concerns of anyone that may or may not be later charged.
The report opens with a timeline of the special grand jury's work, from the DA's first request for the panel to the 75 witnesses that came before the closed-door body, also noting that the group voted unanimously that "no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning that election."
McBurney noted in February that the special jury's document was concise and effective in its recommendations.
"Having reviewed the final report, the undersigned concludes that the special purpose grand jury did not exceed the scope of its prescribed mission," the order read. "Indeed, it provided the District Attorney with exactly what she requested: a roster of who should (or should not) be indicted, and for what, in relation to the conduct (and aftermath) of the 2020 general election in Georgia."
The report comes as Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee has ordered two of the 19 defendants to stand trial beginning Oct. 23 and will sort out scheduling for the rest of the defendants imminently, at least five defendants are seeking to have their cases moved to federal court and a litany of other legal filings highlight the complex nature of the case.
