Georgia special grand jury report hearing to be held by judge

A special grand jury was entrusted with looking into potential legal violations by then-President Donald Trump and his associates during their attempt to rig Georgia’s 2020 election, and the judge is scheduled to hear arguments on whether or not to release their findings on Tuesday.

Before deciding whether to release the report, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney will hear arguments from the district attorney’s office, media outlets, and maybe other parties. The report should be made public, according to the special grand jury’s recommendation, which McBurney oversaw.

Although it’s unknown how detailed the recommendations will be, the report is anticipated to contain suggestions for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis regarding potential criminal prosecution. It is ultimately up to Willis to determine whether to request indictments from a regular grand jury because the special grand jury lacked the authority to do so.

If McBurney chooses to make the report public, he must also decide if any portions of it need to be redacted and whether it should be released right away or later. It’s uncertain how soon he’ll take power.

The probe is only one of many that could have a negative impact on the former Republican president’s ability to run for office again in 2024. The special grand jury heard testimony from dozens of witnesses over the course of about seven months, including prominent Trump supporters like attorney Rudy Giuliani and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham as well as high-ranking Georgian government officials like Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Governor Brian Kemp.

Willis started looking into the matter soon after a tape of a phone call between Trump and Raffensperger from January 2021 became widely known. In that discussion, the president stated that a fellow Republican serving as the state’s chief elections officer might find the votes required to reverse his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump had stated, I only need to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.  We won the state, so.

A group of news organizations, including The Associated Press, advocated for the report’s full release in a filing on Monday, claiming that state court regulations, the state and federal constitutions, and the document is a court record entitled to a presumption of openness.   According to the media group, there are  no countervailing interests adequate to overcome the presumption and that the public interest in the report is exceptional.

Democratic attorney Willis still hadn’t submitted a brief on Monday stating whether or not the findings should be made public.

In a statement, Trump’s legal counsel in Georgia stated that it had no plans to attend or take part in the hearing.

The former president was never subpoenaed or requested to appear voluntarily as part of the investigation, Drew Findling, Marissa Goldberg, and Jennifer Little said in their letter, To date, we have never been a part of this process.

As a result, we can presume that the grand jury did its duty, considered the evidence and the law, just as we have, and came to the conclusion that President Trump had not broken any laws, they wrote.

The panel was given permission to make recommendations for criminal prosecution as it shall consider fit in the ruling approving Willis’ request for a special grand jury.

A grand jury cannot contain, in a report or general presentation, statements that charge or accuse identified person(s) of misbehavior, according to courts, according to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia’s grand jury manual. According to the guidebook, such can only be done in a charge document like an indictment.

According to Executive Director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council Pete Skandalakis, I don’t think you can expressly accuse someone of committing a crime, so it’s going to have to be a general recommendation on whether the district attorney should continue the investigation.

Skandalakis asserted that he thinks the special grand jury’s recommendation to charge particular individuals would have to be suppressed before the report could be made public.