A judge in Fulton County, Georgia, on Thursday will release parts of a special grand jury report on whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies tried to unlawfully interfere in the 2020 election results in the key battleground state.
The newly unsealed portions of the report will not include the grand jury’s recommendations on potential indictments, Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said this week in ordering the sections to be released.
McBurney ruled Monday that three parts of the grand jury’s final report should be made public: the introduction, the conclusion and a section in which jurors expressed concern that some witnesses may have lied under oath. Those witnesses are not identified in the section, he said.
The judge said “the compelling public interest in these proceedings and the unquestionable value and importance of transparency require their release.”
McBurney revealed the special purpose grand jury had completed its work in a separate ruling last month officially dissolving the panel.
The panel was convened last year as part of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ investigation into whether there were any “coordinated attempts to unlawfully alter the outcome of the 2020 elections” in the state by Trump and his allies.
The grand jury was tasked with looking into “‘the facts and circumstances relating directly or indirectly to possible attempts to disrupt the lawful administration of the 2020 elections in the State of Georgia’ and to prepare a report on whether anyone should be prosecuted for such potential crimes,” McBurney recounted in his ruling last month.
The special purpose grand jury is different from a typical grand jury in that, rather than issuing indictments, it submits its findings to the district attorney, who will then make the decision whether to present evidence to a grand jury for criminal charges.
In his ruling Monday, McBurney said the panel had “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.”
Willis called for the grand jury last year because it has the power to issue subpoenas to force witnesses to testify. The panel heard from dozens of witnesses, court filings show. Among those who were questioned about their alleged involvement in efforts to overturn results in the state were former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and 16 people who served as “alternate electors“ in the state.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Republicans who’d been pressured by Trump and his allies to alter the outcome of the 2020 election, also testified.
Among the incidents Willis is looking at is Trump’s Jan. 2, 2021, phone call with Raffensperger, in which he urged the state’s top election official to overturn Joe Biden’s win. “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state,” Trump said in the call.
Trump has called that phone call “perfect,” and decried Willis’ investigation as a “witch hunt.”
In a post last month on his social media platform Truth Social, he said the “call to the Secretary of State challenged Election Integrity, or lack there of, which is my Right/Duty.”
McBurney noted that the grand jury “certified that it voted to recommend that its report be published.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
