Atlanta

Fulton County judge rules parts of special grand jury report to be released Thursday

By WSBTV.com News Staff
By WSBTV.com News Staff

ATLANTA — A Fulton County judge ordered the partial release of a special purpose grand jury’s final report involving allegations of criminal tampering with Georgia’s 2020 election and former President Donald Trump’s possible involvement.

Channel 2′s Richard Elliot was at the State Capitol this week where there was a lot of buzz about the ruling, but few comments.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was at the Capitol Monday to testify before the Georgia Senate Judiciary Committee about her support for a bill aimed at combatting Georgia’s gang problem.

Elliot asked her about the order that authorizes a partial release of the special purpose grand jury’s final report, and she said, “I’m pleased with it.”

We’ll have coverage of the report as soon as it’s dropped, on Channel 2 Action News and WSBTV.com.

Willis originally asked that he not release the report at all, but Willis said she was satisfied by his decision.

“I thought that he listened to the arguments of the state and that his order basically did what we asked. So I’m very pleased with the order,” Willis said.

The special purpose grand jury investigated potential criminal tampering with Georgia’s 2020 election that included Trump’s phone call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, to a state Senate subcommittee hearing where Trump’s then-attorney Rudy Giuliani made claims of massive statewide voter fraud. Those claims were all debunked by multiple investigations.

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Former Democratic state Sen. Jen Jordan was in that hearing and testified about it to the special grand jury.

“They asked a lot of questions. It was a very diverse group, and you could tell they were really pushing back, too. They weren’t just being spoon-fed stuff,” Jordan said.

As an attorney, Jordan supports the judge’s decision not to release portions, including names, and said that could signal indictments are coming.

“The very fact that he’s withholding some back indicates to me that the grand jury did its job. It named names and I think there’s going to be indictments that are going to follow very, very soon,” Jordon said.

The judge ruled that three parts of the report will be made public later this week.

“These three portions include the introduction and conclusion to the final report, as well as Section VIII, in which the special purpose grand jury discusses its concern that some witnesses may have lied under oath during their testimony to the grand jury,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said. “The compelling public interest in these proceedings and the unquestionable value and importance of transparency require their release.”

Those parts of the report will be made public on Feb. 16 to allow the DA’s office time to go over any parts they feel need to be redacted and to figure out the logistics of how to publish the sections of the report.

Elliot attempted to contact several prominent Republicans – including the governor’s office, the lieutenant governor’s office, the attorney general’s office, and some state senators – for comment on this story but none had any.

They said they didn’t want to talk about the report until it is released.

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Fulton grand jury looking into whether Trump interfered with 2020 election completes investigation Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney will now decide how much, if anything, the public will get to see from that investigation.

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