Grand jurors heard another Donald Trump call in Georgia: A newspaper report details what went on inside the special grand jury room in Georgia, one of several bodies weighing whether the former president will face criminal charges.
Between May and December of 2022, a special grand jury met in Georgia to examine the evidence that President Trump, and possibly others, might face charges concerning the attempt to overturn the election results in that state.
The panel concluded by recommending that multiple people be charged, although none were named in the redacted portion of the report released last month.
Emily Kohrs, the jury’s forewoman, then went on a poorly received media tour in which she shared more than what is customary about the proceedings while implying that Trump will be charged.
The special grand jury does not have the power to bring charges, as that power is reserved for regular grand juries.
But there was some worry among Trump opponents that Kohrs’ interviews could hurt the case going forward.
Experts quoted by the AP noted that while “Kohrs’ chattiness in news interviews probably aggravated Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who’s leading the investigation, they were not legally damaging.
Donald Trump: What Is the Latest on Georgia Probe?
Now, there’s another new story, this time in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, looking at what went on in the special grand jury in Georgia.
Five members of the grand jury, out of 23, agreed to speak to the newspaper on the record.
The special grand juries were not named, although the Journal-Constitution did say that Kohrs was not among the sources for the story.
The story included several previously unreported details about the special grand jury. For one thing, a bomb-sniffing dog was present when former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn testified.
Another Phone Call…
The jurors also revealed that they had heard another recording of Trump leaning on an elected official.
The then-president was heard asking Republican Georgia House Speaker David Ralston to convene a special session of the state’s legislature to overturn the state’s awarding of electoral votes to President Biden.
Ralston “basically cut the president off,” one grand juror said, and no such session occurred. Ralston passed away in late 2022, shortly after stepping down for health reasons.
The jurors also explained that they were upset by criticism following Kohrs’ media blitz.
“I just felt like we, as a group, were portrayed as not serious,” one juror told the Journal-Constitution. “That really bothered me because that’s not how I felt. I took it very seriously. I showed up, did what I was supposed to do, did not do what I was asked not to do, you know?”
The story also noted that Kohrs had volunteered to serve as foreperson of the grand jury, because even though she had never voted, “she was interested in politics and the legal process and knew she could devote more time than many others because she was between jobs.”
The story said that over the course of its life, the special grand jury heard 75 witnesses, who they put into “three buckets”- those who wanted to testify, those who testified only after being subpoenaed, and those who had fought their summons and only appeared after exhausting such efforts. That last group is presumed to include Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who went to court to fight his subpoena but had those efforts repeatedly rejected. Others took the Fifth.
“If somebody had told Trump that aliens came down and stole Trump ballots, that Trump would’ve believed it,” one juror said Graham had said.
Among those who testified, according to the story, were Fulton County poll workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, who had also testified before the January 6 Committee after the threats they received after they were named in bogus conspiracy theories by Rudy Giuliani and other allies of the former president.
“One of the most important things we’ll be a part of in our life was this eight-month process that we did,” one member of the special grand jury told the newspaper.
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Expertise and Experience:
Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
