The former foreperson of the Fulton County, Georgia, special grand jury that investigated attempts to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election results has implied that former President Donald Trump will be indicted by District Attorney Fani Willis.
The forewoman, Emily Kohrs, has publicly commented on the case to a number of news outlets.
The portions of the grand jury’s report to Willis that were made public last week only included recommendations for perjury charges. The remainder of the report includes further recommendations for charges, Kohrs told The New York Times earlier this week, adding that it’s “not a short list.”
“You’re not going to be shocked” by the names on the list, she said. “It’s not rocket science.”
She continued:
It is not going to be some giant plot twist. You probably have a fair idea of what may be in there. I’m trying very hard to say that delicately.
Kohrs also implied that Trump featured prominently in the final report, noting that the grand jury examined a significant amount of evidence related to the former president’s phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R). In that call, Trump demanded that Raffensperger “find” him enough votes to overturn President Joe Biden’s win in the state.
“We definitely started with the first phone call, the call to Secretary Raffensperger that was so publicized,” Kohrs said.
It is illegal to coerce, command, or otherwise attempt to get a state election official to engage in election fraud under Georgia state law.
In a CNN interview later this week, Kohrs again insinuated that the grand jury had recommended charges for Trump.
“There may be some names on that list that you wouldn’t expect. But the big name that everyone keeps asking me about — I don’t think you will be shocked,” she said.
Legal experts and other observers expressed concern that Kohrs’s public statements could undermine Willis’s work.
“She shouldn’t be doing this. It isn’t helpful to the perception of the objectivity of the criminal justice system, and it starts to feel like she’s putting pressure on the district attorney to actually move forward with charges,” said Dan Abrams, ABC News’s chief legal analyst.
Indeed, Trump has already spoken out against Kohrs, calling her an “extremely energetic young woman” and saying that she is conducting a “media tour,” implying that she is trying to get famous for her role on the grand jury. Trump has repeatedly derided the investigation as a “witch hunt” and described the grand jury as a “kangaroo court.”
But long before Kohrs began speaking publicly on the matter, Willis was adamant that charges would be forthcoming. After the report from the special grand jury was submitted to her office, but before Kohrs’s public statements, Willis said that charges would be “imminent.”
Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman has said that it’s pretty clear Trump will be charged.
“When you combine [Kohrs’s comments] with everything else that you know…I don’t think there’s any conclusion you can come to here, other than Donald Trump is going to be indicted in Georgia,” Akerman said.
The former federal prosecutor has said for months now that Trump will eventually face charges. In June of last year, for example, Akerman said that Trump had “zero defense” in the investigation, citing the recorded conversation with Raffensperger and evidence from other inquiries into Trump’s actions after his 2020 presidential election loss.
“Once you look at what he said, trying to get Brad Raffensperger to come up with extra votes to make him a winner in Georgia, and put in the context about the January 6th committee has found, I think they have gotten a case beyond a reasonable doubt,” Akerman said at the time.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy