ATLANTA (AP) — A judge is expected to release Friday the full report prepared by a special grand jury that supported an investigation by the Georgia prosecutor who ultimately indicted former President Donald Trump and 18 others.
The special grand jury heard from about 75 witnesses for seven months before completing a report in December with recommendations for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on allegations related to attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Willis had said she needed the panel’s subpoena power to compel the testimony of witnesses who otherwise might not have been willing to appear.
Even though most of the intrigue surrounding the inner workings of the case has subsided with the filing of the indictment, the grand jury’s special report will still tell the public how closely the indictment aligns with the panel’s recommendations about who should be charged. The aim was to show whether the panel had imagined the far-reaching conspiracy that prosecutors ultimately alleged.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ordered partial release of the report in February but declined to immediately release the panel’s recommendations on who should and should not be prosecuted. The judge said at the time that he wanted to protect people’s due process rights.
McBurney said in a new order filed Aug. 28 that due process concerns were moot because a regular grand jury indicted Trump and 18 others under the state’s anti-crime law. All have pleaded not guilty.
McBurney had set a deadline of 5 p.m. on September 6 for anyone who believes parts of the report should not be published to object to its publication. Online court records do not indicate that anyone has objected, so McBurney is expected to release the full report at 10 a.m. Friday.
It is known that many of the defendants – including former New York mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows – testified before the special grand jury. Trump himself was never summoned and did not appear before the committee.
Parts of the report previously released in February included its introduction and conclusion, as well as a section in which jurors expressed concerns that one or more witnesses may have lied under oath and urged prosecutors to file perjury charges. The chairman of the panel said in press interviews that the special jury had recommended that numerous people be indicted.
