ATLANTA (AP) – A judge will hear arguments Tuesday on whether to release a report by a special grand jury tasked with investigating whether President Donald Trump and his allies broke any laws as they sought to overturn their narrow 2020 election defeat. Georgia.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney will hear arguments from the district attorney’s office, news outlets and other parties before making a decision on the report’s release. A special jury, whose work was overseen by McBurney, recommended that the report be made public.
The report will include recommendations for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis about possible criminal charges, though it’s unclear how specific those recommendations will be. A special grand jury does not have the power to issue an indictment, and it will ultimately be up to Willis to decide whether to seek an indictment from a regular grand jury.
If McBurney decides to release the report, he will also have to determine whether parts of it should be redacted and whether the report should be made public now or later. It is unclear how soon he will rule.
The investigation is one of several that threaten potential legal consequences for the former president as he seeks re-election in 2024. For about seven months, the special jury heard from dozens of witnesses, including prominent Trump allies, including Rudy’s lawyer. Giuliani and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and high-ranking Georgia officials, such as Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Governor Brian Kemp.
Willis began investigating shortly after a recording of a January 2021 phone call between Trump and Raffensperger became public. In the call, the president suggested that the nation’s top election official, a fellow Republican, could “find” the votes needed to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
“I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is more than we have,” Trump said. “Because we won the state.”
A coalition of news organizations, including The Associated Press, supported the release of the report in its entirety, saying in a Monday filing that the document “is a court record subject to the presumption of openness” under state and federal court rules. constitution. The media group said the public interest in the report was “extraordinary” and “there are no countervailing interests sufficient to overcome the suspicion.”
Willis had not yet filed a brief Monday explaining whether the report should be released.
Trump’s legal team in Georgia said in a statement that he had no plans to attend or participate in the hearing.
“Until now, we have never been a part of this process,” Drew Findling, Marissa Goldberg and Jennifer Little wrote, noting that the former president was never subpoenaed or asked to voluntarily appear as part of the investigation.
“Therefore, we can assume that the jury did its job and looked at the facts and the law, as we did, and concluded that there was no violation of the law by President Trump,” he wrote.
The order granting Willis’ request for a special jury authorized the panel to “make a recommendation regarding the criminal prosecution to be pursued.”
A grand jury handbook produced by the Georgia Board of Prosecutors says the court has repeatedly said that a grand jury “may not include, in a report or public presentation, any comment that accuses or accuses a person of known wrongdoing.” This can only be done in a charging document, like an indictment, the handbook says.
“I don’t think you can blame anyone for a crime, so it should be a public recommendation” whether the district attorney should continue the investigation, executive director of the Council of Prosecuting Attorneys Pete Skandalakis said of the case. report.
If the special grand jury recommends that certain people be indicted, Skandalakis said he believes they should be removed before the report can be released.
While the work of the special grand jury is conducted in secret, as required by law, the related public court filings provide a glimpse into the thread of the investigation being pursued. That includes:
– Calls from Trump and others to Georgia officials after the 2020 election.
– A group of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate in December 2020 falsely stated that Trump had won the state and that they were “elected and qualified” voters.
– False allegations of election fraud committed during a meeting of state legislators at the Georgia Capitol in December 2020.
– Copying of data and software from election equipment in rural Coffee County by a computer forensics team hired by Trump allies.
– Alleged attempt to coerce Fulton County election worker Ruby Freeman into falsely admitting to election fraud.
– Resignation from US attorney in Atlanta in January 2021.