The special grand jury’s report, which has been sealed for nine months, sheds light on the scope of the two-year investigation into efforts to subvert the 2020 election results in Georgia.
A special grand jury in Georgia recommended criminal charges against three U.S. senators and more than a dozen additional allies of former President Donald Trump as part of its investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election – individuals who were not ultimately indicted in the sweeping racketeering case.
The Republican senators include Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and former Sen. Kelly Loeffler and former Sen. David Perdue, both of Georgia and both who lost their seats in special elections in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.
The special grand jury report, which has been sealed for nine months and was made public Friday, sheds light on the scope of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ two-year investigation into Republican efforts to subvert the 2020 election results in Georgia.
The panel, which included 26 Fulton County residents, first convened in June 2022 and heard from 75 witnesses over the course of seven months.
“The Grand Jury heard extensive testimony on the subject of alleged election fraud from poll workers, investigators, technical experts, and State of Georgia employees and officials, as well as from persons still claiming that such fraud took place,” the 26-page report states. “We find by unanimous vote that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning that election.”
Willis used the evidence and information they gathered to seek an indictment from a regular grand jury last month, which ultimately accused the former president and 18 of his closest allies of operating a sweeping racketeering scheme to overturn Trump’s election loss. That indictment, in addition to charging 19 individuals, also identified 30 unindicted co-conspirators who have not been charged but who are accused of playing some role in the larger scheme.
Trump blasted the breadth of the special grand jury report on Friday.
“It has ZERO credibility and badly taints Fani Willis and this whole political Witch Hunt,” he posted on social media. “Essentially, they wanted to indict anybody who happened to be breathing at the time. It totally undermines the credibility of the findings, and badly hurts the Great State of Georgia.”
Despite the claims of a GOP witch hunt, prosecutors passed over obvious avenues to charge several prominent Republicans.
In addition to the three GOP senators, the special grand jury also recommended charges against 21 additional individuals, including former national security adviser Mike Flynn, Trump lawyers Cleta Mitchell, Boris Epshteyn and Lin Wood, a slew of Georgia lawyers and state Republicans and others.
To be sure, Willis may have several reasons for not indicting an individual against whom the grand jury recommended charges, including that they are helping the district attorney’s office or that the individual has a strong defense.
Graham, for example, has argued that all the actions he took, including making several phone calls and statements about potential voter fraud, were taken in his capacity as a U.S. senator and then-chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee concerned with protecting elections.
Ultimately, legal experts say, it was up to Willis – who has been criticized by some for overreaching in the sweeping RICO case and indicting too many people – to charge the individuals with the greatest evidence against them.
https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2023-09-08/special-grand-jury-recommended-charges-for-lindsey-graham-dozens-more-trump-allies
