A Georgia-based special grand jury that initially investigated efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 presidential election recommended charges against more than three dozen people, including 21 who were not charged last month.
A report summarizing the special-purpose grand jury investigation was released Friday after Judge Robert McBurney, who chaired the panel, ordered it be made public last week.
Incumbent Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-Ga., and former Sens. David Perdue, R-Ga., and Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., and former national security adviser Michael Flynn were among those recommended for indictment by the panel, but ultimately Not charged. Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn was also on the list recommended for indictment.
NBC News asked for comment from Graham, Loeffler, Perdue and Cleta Mitchell, a conservative activist recommended for indictment by the panel. Epshteyn declined to comment.
Instead of issuing indictments like a regular grand jury, the special grand jury presents its findings to the district attorney, who then decides whether evidence should be presented to a grand jury for criminal prosecution.
Last month, a separate grand jury that heard evidence in the case charged Trump and 18 others with criminal racketeering and numerous conspiracy charges.
The special grand jury was convened last year as part of Willis’ investigation because it had the power to issue subpoenas to compel witnesses to testify. The panel was disbanded earlier this year and parts of the report were made public in February, stating that in the course of this investigation it had “received evidence from or involving 75 witnesses, the vast majority of whom were given the information personally under oath handed over. “
Those unsealed portions of the report showed that grand jurors said they believed some witnesses may have lied under oath. The jury chairman said in an interview in February that the panel had recommended charging more than a dozen people.
Trump, for his part, has sought to quash the special grand jury report, arguing that all evidence should be deemed unconstitutional.
The regular grand jury’s 41 indictments accused Trump and 18 others last month of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization, or RICO, Act. Willis accused the defendants of participating in efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in Georgia and unlawfully declaring Trump the winner of the election.
Trump and the other defendants have pleaded not guilty.
On Thursday, Trump informed the state judge presiding over the case that he might try to move the case to federal court. Willis has said she wants to bring all 19 defendants, including the former president, to trial next month. So far, former Trump lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell are expected to go on trial starting October 23 as they requested speedy trials.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who is presiding over the trial, said this week that he was “very skeptical” that Willis would be able to try all 19 defendants in October. Nathan Wade, who represented the district attorney’s office at the hearing, told the judge that a trial for all defendants would take about four months and that prosecutors expect 150 witnesses to testify.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
