CNN host Anderson Cooper and legal analyst Elie Honig expressed concern on Tuesday about several media appearances by the foreperson of the grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
The foreperson, Emily Kohrs, has been interviewed by several news outlets, including CNN, about the grand jury deliberations, giving coy and cryptic hints about who might be indicted.
“This is not a short list,” he said on CNN earlier Tuesday, chuckling, of the list of recommended indictments. Asked if Trump was among them, he said: “I really don’t want to show anything that the judge made a conscious decision not to show,” but “it’s a process that we often hear his name.”
“Why is this guy talking on TV, I don’t know,” Cooper said, according to a clip recorded by Mediaite. “He’s obviously happy. Is this a responsibility? He’s the chairman of this jury.
Honig, a former state and federal prosecutor, said the interview was a “terrible idea” and that prosecutors may have been surprised to see him, adding that it was “painful” to see Kohrs give clues.
“This is a very serious prospect here,” he said. “Prosecuting anybody, you’re talking about the possibility of taking away that person’s freedom. We’re talking about the potential [indicting] former president for the first time in the history of this nation. He didn’t seem to take himself too seriously.
Honig, a former assistant U.S. attorney, suggested that Kohrs’ comments could pave the way for Trump’s team to make a motion, if he is indicted, to dismiss the indictment based on grand jury impropriety.
“They don’t have to talk about anything, but they really don’t have to talk about deliberations,” he said, describing Kohrs as a “prosecutor’s nightmare.”
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney allowed certain portions of the grand jury report to be made public last week but withheld the names of those recommended for indictment, citing procedural issues. A panel of 23 jurors reviewed the evidence for seven months starting last May. It is now up to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to decide whether to prosecute.