ATLANTA — A special grand jury in Fulton County that examined efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia said it believed at least one witness it heard from may have lied under oath.
The panel recommended that the Fulton District Attorney’s office seek indictments against those people “where the evidence is compelling,” though it did not specify to which witnesses it was referring or why it believed they lied.
“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.”
All or parts of four pages of the nine-page final report were released Thursday, providing the public its first peek into the findings of the 23-member panel, which spent eight months working behind closed doors. The grand jurors also noted an appendix of relevant Georgia statutes was attached to the final report.
Grand jurors noted they unanimously found that “no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning that election.”
Few other details were provided, including the panel’s highly anticipated recommendations for who should be charged with state crimes. Those portions are likely to be released only after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis makes indictment decisions, which could take months or longer.
But in the introduction of the report that was released, the special grand jurors wrote that they had provided “recommendations on indictments and relevant statutes.” They also said the report will show the tallies of their votes on “each topic.”
Still, Thursday’s excerpts were being picked apart by observers seeking hints on what was proposed. Some expressed surprise that the final document might only be nine pages long, not the similar expansive look at the election that the Jan. 6 committee on Capitol Hill took late last year.
“It’s certainly not definitive on whether Trump should be charged,” said attorney Norm Eisen, who co-authored a report on the Fulton probe for the Brookings Institution. “But the declaration that they found that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election is another nail in Trump’s coffin.”
Eisen, who was President Barack Obama’s ethics czar and helped lead House Democrats’ first Trump impeachment, noted that Trump’s defense has been that something amiss happened during the 2020 election in Georgia. “That defense has now been eliminated, not by a prosecutorial adversary but by 23 members of the grand jury who unanimously explained this is their view,” he said.
A Willis spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did Trump’s Georgia-based legal team.
The special grand jury, which was advised by the DA’s office, interviewed 75 witnesses, including top state officials, former White House aides and several of Trump’s closest advisers. But jurors did not seek testimony from the probe’s central figure: Trump himself.
Among the incidents jurors investigated was the Jan. 2, 2021, leaked phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, during which Trump asked the fellow Republican to “find” 11,780 votes, one more than was needed to swing the outcome of the election. The panel also examined the appointment of a slate of 16 “alternate” Republican electors, testimony Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and others gave to Georgia lawmakers, the alleged harassment of a Fulton poll worker and a breach of elections data in Coffee County.
At least 18 people were named investigation “targets” and warned by prosecutors that they could face charges. Among them were Giuliani and David Shafer, the head of the Georgia GOP who abruptly announced last week that he would not seek another term. More people could ultimately be indicted, or Willis could opt to focus on a smaller group or decline to prosecute anyone, though the latter is considered less likely.
The special grand jury delivered its recommendations to Fulton prosecutors in January. A majority of jurors had to reach an agreement for items to be shared in the report.
If Willis decides to pursue charges, she must present her case before a regular grand jury. Willis has kept her plans close to the vest, though she hinted at a hearing last month that decisions were “imminent.”
Under Georgia law, perjury could be tried as a stand-alone charge or a predicate act under the state’s anti-racketeering statute. Willis previously said she was looking at potential violations of RICO in connection with the elections investigation.
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