VICE
A panel investigating Former President Donald Trump in Georgia said some witnesses may have lied under oath.
The special purpose grand jury also recommended the local Georgia prosecutor bring criminal charges if those lies can be proved, according to portions of the panel’s final report that were released on Thursday.
“A majority of the Grand Jury believes that perjury may have been committed by one or more witnesses testifying before it,” the report said. “The Grand Jury recommends that the District Attorney seek appropriate indictments for such crimes where the evidence is compelling.”
The select fragments released on Thursday did not identify any potential targets for indictment or provide more substance about the grand jury’s findings. Instead, it offered only a small number of tantalizing details about what the rest of the report may conclude.
Trump did not testify before the grand jury, and is not known to have received a target letter from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. He has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
The release of the Fulton County special purpose grand jury’s report has been hotly anticipated ever since the investigative body wrapped up its probe of Trump and his allies in January. But its primary conclusions remain secret. Judge Robert McBurney ordered that all sections of the report listing specific names and criminal charging recommendations be withheld. That ruling represented a victory for Willis, who has been investigating Trump and his allies since early 2021 and asked McBurney in January to keep those details secret because her charging decisions are “imminent.”
McBurney’s order on Monday said “fundamental fairness” requires that names and accusations be kept secret while Willis decides whether to bring charges.
Those potential defendants haven’t yet had a chance to call their own witnesses as they would in a normal criminal trial, McBurney noted, and witnesses who spoke before the special purpose grand jury were not allowed to have their lawyers present.
McBurney’s order made clear, however, that the still-secret parts of the report contain specific prosecutorial action items.
The panel “provided the District Attorney with exactly what she requested: a roster of who should (or should not) be indicted, and for what, in relation to the conduct (and aftermath) of the 2020 general election in Georgia,” McBurney wrote.
The jurors also wrote that they shared the unanimous belief that there was no fraud in the 2020 election. That’s bad news for Trump, since it means the panel considering whether he should be charged with crimes had no sympathy for his repeated claims that the election was somehow tainted.
“We find by a unanimous vote that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning the election,” the report concluded.
Willis’ investigation is just one of several criminal probes now looming over Trump, although it may be the closest to resulting in final charging decisions.
Special Counsel Jack Smith is also investigating Trump’s attempts to stay in power despite losing the 2020 election, and the discovery of sensitive government documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach. In New York, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has reportedly begun showing evidence to a grand jury about Trump’s role in a scheme to buy the silence of an adult film actress named Stormy Daniels about her alleged sexual affair with Trump before the 2016 election.
