Grand jury recommends multiple indictments in probe of Trump, allies

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
22 Feb 2023 09:29

US authorities spend the last two years investigating whether Former President Donald Trump and his aides committed crimes in their attempt to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in the southern state by less than 12,000 votes.

Former US President Donald Trump speaks in Columbia, South Carolina, US, on January 28, 2023. (Reuters)

A US grand jury investigating Donald Trump and his associates' efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the critical state of Georgia has recommended many indictments, the forewoman announced Tuesday.

Emily Kohrs said her 23-member panel has recommended charges against more than a dozen people, without naming anyone, in unusually public remarks about the closed-door legal procedure, most notably because no indictments have been made.

"There are certain names that you would recognize, yes," she told NBC News in a televised interview.

"There are names also that you might not recognize," she added.

It is worth noting that she informed multiple news sites that the people and offenses mentioned in the jury's final report, the result of seven months of labor, "is not a small list."

Authorities have spent two years investigating whether the former President and his aides committed crimes in their attempt to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in the southern state by less than 12,000 votes.

The known targets include Trump's former attorney Rudy Giuliani and 16 Republican activists who posed as presidential "electors" to sign certificates falsely claiming the 76-year-old Republican had gained victory in the Peach State.

Kohrs did not say whether Trump, who has planned a third presidential bid in 2024, was among those nominated for indictment.

The panel heard from 75 witnesses over the course of seven months, including Trump's fourth chief of staff, Mark Meadows, Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, and Giuliani.

Kohrs said later, as quoted by CNN, that Meadows "didn't share very much at all" and had affirmed his constitutional right not to speak.

Commenting on whether she had security concerns about speaking so publicly about the controversial topic, Kohrs said, "I'm aware of my safety, but I'm not worried."

"I don't think I should be -- I don't think I... or any of the jury members did anything that says we believe one way or the other about politics," she stressed.

A Georgia judge allowed the release of three redacted sections of the grand jury report last week, revealing that members found no proof of widespread voting fraud, undermining Trump's argument that he was robbed of the election.

"I will tell you that if the judge releases the recommendations, it is not going to be some giant plot twist," Kohrs said, as quoted by the Times.

After presenting the panel's findings to one of the criminal grand juries regularly appointed in Georgia's Fulton County, Democratic District Attorney Fani Willis will make the final charging decision, a process that may have already begun.

The probe was sparked by Trump's phone contact with Georgia election officials on January 2, 2021, in which he famously requested them to "find" the 11,780 votes that would put him one vote ahead of Biden in the state.

Kohrs also said, as quoted by CNN, that she had heard more of Trump's recorded calls during the process.

The Georgia investigation is one of several looking into suspected illegal conduct by Trump and his associates, who are accused of being involved in a multi-step conspiracy to maintain power despite Trump's election loss.