Special grand jury recommended indicting 39 people in Georgia election interference case
A special grand jury that investigated efforts to overturn the 2020 election result in Georgia recommended indicting 39 people, according to a final report unsealed today.
A grand jury last month ultimately charged 19 in a sweeping racketeering case, including former President Donald Trump, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
Last year, a judge empaneled the special grand jury of 26 Fulton County residents to assist with the Fulton County district attorney’s office investigation and heard from 75 witnesses over eight months.
A few sections of the report were made public in February, but did not include the jurors’ topline recommendations on whether prosecutors should pursue criminal charges.
Judge Robert McBurney ruled in August that the full report could be made public once the indictments had been handed up.
The unredacted final report reveals that the voted nearly unanimously to recommend indicting the former president.
And they suggested charging dozens more of his allies, including Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham and former U.S. Senators from Georgia David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who in the end, weren’t charged with any crimes.
“I make no apologies for serving my state by giving voice to millions of Americans who felt disenfranchised in 2020,” Loeffler wrote in a statement.
The special grand jury also recommended charging Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who District Attorney Fani Willis was barred from prosecuting after she held a political fundraiser for one of his political opponents.
“This document further demonstrates that this entire political circus has been done in pursuit of Fani Willis’ personal gain,” Jones wrote in a statement.
A special grand jury is an investigative tool that can only recommend charges. Ultimately, prosecutors have to decide who to seek criminal charges against and then ask a regular grand jury to indict.
So how does a slate of recommended charges for 39 people result in just 19-codefendants?
Willis and her office decided not to pursue charges against everyone.
In August, the regular grand jury agreed to charge everyone that prosecutors wanted to indict. Otherwise, a “no bill” would have been included in the indictment for anyone the grand jury had voted against charging.
Some people were offered immunity deals, including many of those who signed on as electors for Trump, despite Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia.
Former DeKalb County district attorney J. Tom Morgan says prosecutors also have to weigh whether they could eventually prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt, which is the standard required to win a guilty verdict.
Trial juries are required to unanimously agree in order to return a guilty verdict on criminal charges.
A trial date has yet to be set for Trump and most of his 18 co-defendants.
At least two, lawyers Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, will go to trial on Oct. 23.
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