Chair of Georgia grand jury investigating Trump and 2020 election says jury ‘definitely talked a lot about him’

(CNN) The chairman of the Atlanta-based grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election told CNN Tuesday that the panel is recommending multiple indictments and suspected that “the big name” could be on the list.

“Can you imagine doing this for eight months and not coming out with a whole list of recommended charges,” Emily Kohrs told CNN. “It’s not a short list. That’s not it.”

She continued: “There might be some names on this list that you wouldn’t expect. But the big name that everyone keeps asking me about — I don’t think you’ll be shocked.”

Kohrs later on Tuesday declined to say exactly how many charges the special grand jury recommended in the investigation, saying only that she thought the number was more than 12.

When asked by CNN’s Kate Bolduan on Erin Burnett OutFront if the number of people was “more than a dozen,” Kohrs replied, “I think so. That’s probably a good assumption.”

Portions of the grand jury’s final report, released last week, made it clear that the grand jury believed that charges of perjury against some witnesses were warranted. The foreman’s identity was first revealed by The Associated Press. And earlier on Tuesday Kohrs told the New York Times that the grand jury had recommended multiple charges, but didn’t name names.

The grand jury sat in Atlanta for about seven months and heard testimony from 75 witnesses, including some of Trump’s closest advisers, during his final weeks in the White House.

Now that the grand jury is complete, it’s up to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to review the recommendations and make charging decisions. Willis’ decisions in this case will reverberate throughout the 2024 presidential campaign and beyond.

Trump, who launched his campaign for the White House in 2024, denies any criminal wrongdoing. He has claimed that Willis, a Democrat, is politically biased and still regularly makes the false claim that he actually won the Georgia election.

The jury, Kohrs told Bolduan, “definitely heard a lot about former President Trump and we definitely discussed him a lot in the room.”

Kohrs said she heard Trump’s calls as part of the investigation, aside from the infamous post-election call he made to Georgian Foreign Minister Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, urging him to “find the necessary votes.” ‘ to win Georgia.

“Yes, I’m sure I heard the President on the phone more than once,” she said. CNN previously reported that at least one other call from Trump to a Georgia state official was part of the investigation.

According to a source familiar with the situation, Willis’s office was not responsible for approving whether or not members of the special grand jury were allowed to speak to the media and did not know in advance that Kohrs would go public.

“I don’t think there was any bias”

Despite Trump’s claims that prosecutors were liberal zealots on a “witch hunt,” Kohrs said she believes Willis and her team acted impartially and tried to keep the trial fair.

“I don’t think the prosecution team was biased,” she told CNN in a phone interview. “I know for sure that they were always very afraid of inadvertently influencing our opinion one way or another … They told us that they didn’t want their opinion to influence our opinion or any of their additional knowledge, ours.” knowledge influences.

She said prosecutors told her they wanted the grand jury to independently “form your mind” and “take a good look at the matter for itself.”

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Kohrs urged Willis to take “decisive action” as the fate of the investigation is now in their hands.

“Personally, I hope she takes almost any kind of decisive action to actually do something,” Kohrs said. “Too many times in recent history has it felt to me like someone was called out about something that people had a problem with and nothing ever happened.”

Kohrs said there were too many examples of “famous people” evading responsibility after high-profile investigations.

“How often does something actually happen? I would like to see something actually happen. Don’t force me to regain my faith in the system,” Kohrs said. “The only thing I would be disappointed about at this point is if the whole thing just went away. That’s the only thing that would make me sad.”

witnesses before their grand jury

The foreman also told CNN that she was “pleasantly surprised” by the kindness of some witnesses, including key Trump insiders like former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, though he pleaded privilege and declined to answer some questions respond.

“Some of these people were fighting not to be there, but once they were there, they were willing to have a conversation and I deeply respect that,” Kohrs said. “To be honest, Flynn was very nice in person. He was a very nice man. He was definitely interesting. But I don’t remember him saying anything earth-shattering.”

According to Kohrs, using the Fifth Amendment or invoking various legal privileges was a strategy recognized by the grand jury of several of the most prominent witnesses, including Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows.

“Mark Meadows didn’t share much,” she said. “I asked him if he had Twitter and he cited the fifth.”

CNN has asked Meadows’ attorney for comment on Kohrs’ claims that he repeatedly invoked the Fifth Privilege and the Privilege of Leadership.

Separately, a source familiar with the matter confirmed that Mike Pence’s former chief of staff, Marc Short, appeared before the special grand jury under summons. The Associated Press had already reported on his appearance.

The Georgia investigation has long been considered one of Trump’s greatest unsolved legal weaknesses, though any criminal prosecution against him would be subject to constitutional challenges and more scrutiny than perhaps any previous case brought by a local prosecutor.

In addition, Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith is investigating Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, and his possible misuse of classified material. A criminal investigation led by the Manhattan District Attorney is still ongoing in New York, and Trump’s eponymous company is fighting a civil fraud charge by the attorney general.

This story was updated on Wednesday with additional details.

CNN’s Jason Morris, Francesca Hoffman, and Sara Murray contributed to this report.