A special grand jury convened to help investigate Donald Trump for election interference in Georgia recommended that Lindsey Graham be indicted for attempting to overturn the 2020 vote.
The grand jury report, released Friday, showed that the panel called for the indictment of Mr. Graham, the senator from South Carolina, as well as two former senators, two Trump advisers and a lawyer.
None of them were ultimately charged by Fani Willis, the prosecutor responsible for charging Mr. Trump and 18 other associates with a “criminal enterprise” to overturn the election results in the state.
The first of the defendants will be tried in Georgia next month, but the case against Mr Trump will not begin until next year.
Ms Willis originally requested that the former president’s trial begin on March 4, but this is likely to be postponed as the election interference case he faces in Washington will now begin on that date.
Prosecutors say the proceedings will last four months and involve hearing evidence from 150 witnesses, although Scott McAfee, the judge overseeing the case, has said the timeline is “a little unrealistic.”
The special grand jury was convened during Ms. Willis’ investigation of the defendants and helped her compile a series of evidence to be heard at their trials.
Attempts to contact election officials
It was then disbanded so that a conventional grand jury could be convened to vote on which of the potential defendants should be indicted.
It is unclear whether Ms. Willis could return to the remaining figures the special grand jury investigated for further indictments in the future.
For his part, Graham has come under scrutiny for his efforts to contact election officials in Georgia after the 2020 election.
During a recount in the state, he tried to pressure election officials over vote-counting procedures, then resisted the special grand jury’s attempt to question him about his actions.
A majority of the 23 jurors summoned to assist Ms. Willis’ investigation recommended that he also be charged, the report found.
The jurors also recommended charges against Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser, and Boris Epshteyn, a strategic adviser to Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign.
David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, both former Georgia senators, and Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer and conservative campaigner, were also recommended for charges for their alleged participation in a “national effort to overturn the 2020 election.”
The trial of Kenneth Chesebro, one of 19 defendants charged with extortion to overturn the outcome, will begin on October 23.
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