Portions of the Fulton County, Georgia, special grand jury’s report about its investigation into Donald Trump and his allies’ efforts to overturn the 2020 election were released Thursday.
One line that stands out to me comes at the end of the special grand jury’s introduction, where it states it found unanimously that no widespread fraud took place in Georgia in the 2020 election that could result in overturning the election. That’s despite the grand jury noting that it heard extensive testimony from witnesses, including ones “still claiming” that fraud took place.
“We find by a unanimous vote that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning that election,” the grand jury wrote.
Of course, that conclusion cuts against the heart of Trump’s big lie that the election was stolen.
Also, as expected, the special grand jurors noted in the partial report released Thursday that a majority of them believe that “one or more” witnesses may have committed perjury. While we knew going into today that we wouldn’t learn these witnesses names, seeing this officially in the partially released report should be enough to make “one or more” witnesses nervous.
Trump, for his part, doesn’t seem to understand, or be willing to admit, the potential gravity of the situation for him. His campaign responded in part on Thursday: “The long awaited important sections of the Georgia report, which do not even mention President Trump’s name, have nothing to do with the President because President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong.” Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney previously ruled that much of the report should be kept secret for now, heeding arguments from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. She raised concerns about negatively impacting future defendants’ rights before she could bring charges, which she would have to do through a regular grand jury. It’s unclear what progress she has made on that front. In his previous ruling, McBurney said that, for now, the public can see the report’s introduction and conclusion, as well as a section discussing grand jurors’ concerns that some witnesses may have lied, though without naming the specific witnesses.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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