More than thirty persons, including 21 who weren’t indicted last month, were recommended for indictment by a special grand jury in Georgia that initially looked into former President Donald Trump and his allies’ attempts to rig the 2020 presidential election.
Judge Robert McBurney, who oversaw the special purpose grand jury, mandated its publication last week, and a report summarizing its inquiry was made public on Friday.
These individuals included former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., former Sens. David Perdue, R-Ga., & Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., who the panel recommended for indictment but who were not eventually prosecuted. Boris Epshteyn, a Trump adviser, was also suggested for indictment.
NBC News contacted Graham, Loeffler, and Perdue for comments. Epshteyn and the attorney for conservative activist Cleta Mitchell, who the panel recommended be indicted, both declined to comment. Mitchell took part in the controversial phone call that Trump placed to Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state for Georgia, requesting that Raffensperger “find 11,780 votes” to reverse Joe Biden’s victory there.
In a statement published on Friday on X, the platform that replaced Twitter, Loeffler said: “I make no excuses for serving my state by providing a voice to millions of Americans that felt disenfranchised in 2020 — while I refuse to be frightened by a two-tiered system of justice which seeks to systematically eliminate conservatives across this country.”
Flynn’s attorney, Jesse Binnall, stated in an announcement that the report “demonstrates even more misconduct by a politically-motivated prosecutor with a single goal: to take out President Trump & his associates, & interfere in the 2024 election.”
The country’s destruction and the undermining of the principles that made this country great are “what’s at stake in 2024,” Binnall continued, adding that everything is simply the fruit of the same toxic tree that has repeatedly been observed.
Willis looked into Graham after the South Carolina Republican made two calls to Raffensperger and his team following the election in November 2020. Graham allegedly indicated the secretary of state has the power to reject particular absentee ballots, according to Raffensperger. Graham has refuted that claim, claiming that he was merely attempting to comprehend the state’s procedure for examining voter signatures.
When questioned about it by NBC News in November 2020, Graham denied asking Raffensperger to invalidate votes.
“No, that’s absurd. I discussed the process of verifying signatures with him at the time.
When asked why a South Carolina senator phoned the Georgia secretary of state, Graham responded, “Because the future of the country hangs in the balance.”
Graham reiterated his earlier comments to reporters on Friday, saying, “God help us all if it ever becomes impossible, politically risky, or legally risky for a United States senator to ring up folks to find out how the election was incorrect. I’ll repeat this strategy if I have any questions about the upcoming election.
Mark Amick, Burt Jones, Joseph Brannan, Brad Carver, Vikki Consiglio, Mark Hennessy, Cathleen Latham, John Downey, Carolyn Fisher, Gloria Godwin, and C.B. Yadav were among the accused false electors in Georgia that the special grand jury also recommended charging. Other people who are suggested for indictment include Lin Wood, a Georgia lawyer who promoted theories of election fraud and called then-Vice President Mike Pence a “traitor” who ought to be executed, and former Georgia state senator William T. Ligon Jr., who presided over a hearing at which Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, and other Trump lawyers alleged fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The majority of the accused phony electors mentioned in the article were contacted by NBC News on Friday for comments.
The district attorney determines whether to submit the special purpose grand jury’s findings to a grand jury for criminal charges after receiving them instead of issuing indictments like a conventional grand jury would.
Trump and 18 other individuals were charged with felony racketeering and a number of conspiracy crimes by a different grand jury that heard the evidence in the case last month.
Trump stated, “It has ZERO credibility & badly taints Fani Willis along with this entire political Witch Hunt,” in a post on Truth Social responding to the special grand jury findings on Friday. They essentially intended to accuse everybody who was breathing at the moment. The Great State of Georgia, whose great and patriotic people are not thrilled with this charade of an out-of-control ‘prosecutor’ performing the work of, and for, the DOJ. Election interference!, is severely harmed by it and the conclusions are completely undermined.
Mike Roman, a staffer for Trump’s 2020 campaign, is one person who the special grand jury did not recommend for indictment but who ultimately was one of the 19 indicted.
In order to persuade witnesses to testify, the special grand jury was called last year as part of Willis’ investigation. The panel was disbanded earlier this year, and portions of its final report were made public in February. The report stated that the panel had “received proof from or involving 75 eyewitnesses during the span of this investigation, the vast majority of which data was provided in person under oath.”
Grand jurors stated in those portions of the report that were not sealed that they thought certain witnesses may have lied under oath. In a February interview, the jury foreperson said that the panel had suggested charging more than a dozen persons.
Trump has attempted to have the special grand jury report overturned, claiming that the entirety of the evidence should be ruled inadmissible.
Trump and 18 other defendants were charged with breaking Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO Act) in the 41-count indictment returned by the normal grand jury last month. Willis charged the defendants with taking part in plans to illegally declare Trump the winner of the election and reverse Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump and the other accused have entered a not-guilty plea.
Trump informed the state judge overseeing the case on Thursday that he might attempt to have it transferred to federal court. Willis has stated that she intends to hold the former president and the other 19 defendants’ trials the following month. Until now, fast trials are anticipated to begin on October 23 for former Trump attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell.
Powell asked the court on Friday to quickly separate the Fulton County case involving her and Chesebro from the case involving their other 17 co-defendants.
The trial’s judge, Scott McAfee of Fulton County Superior Court, stated this week that he was “very skeptical” that Willis might face all 19 defendants in October. The district attorney’s office was represented at the hearing by Nathan Wade, who informed the judge that the total number of defendants’ trials would last around four months and that 150 witnesses would be called.