Atlanta-area District Attorney Fani Willis is considering the launching of a special grand jury in connection to her criminal investigation of former President Donald Trump for election meddling, and according to a new report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, she’s “likely” to undertake the step, which confirms previous reporting from The New York Times. A special grand jury could remain active for as long as the case demands, unlike regular grand juries, which are active for two months at a time in Fulton County. The Trump investigation already seems poised to stretch out over coming months, with numerous issues weighing on the situation.
Former Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter told the Journal-Constitution that he felt as though Willis must be approaching the end of the line with options for voluntary cooperation-based investigative work. After all, a special grand jury could issue subpoenas, legally compelling the delivering of testimony and the production of certain documents. As Porter put it:
‘My interpretation is that she’s gotten as far as she can interviewing witnesses and dealing with people who are cooperating by producing documents voluntarily. She needs the muscle. She needs the subpoena power.’
Specifically, Willis’s investigation is focused around efforts by Trump and certain allies of his to undercut the presidential election outcome in Georgia, where Biden won. On an early January phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), Trump implored the top elections official to “find” enough votes to flip the state to the then-president’s column. Doing so would have required fraudulently meddling with the numbers. Still, that’s not all — among other moves, Trump was also in touch with Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp, who the former president has said that he asked to hold a do-over presidential election — although a Trump spokesperson later claimed that Trump meant to say that he asked for a special state legislative session, where Georgia officials could have formulated a plan to tackle the imaginary fraud that was supposedly responsible for Biden’s win.
Willis’s investigation involves “potential violations of Georgia law prohibiting criminal solicitation to commit election fraud, intentional interference with the performance of election duties, conspiracy and racketeering,” in addition to other issues, the Journal-Constitution notes, based on remarks from the District Attorney. A special grand jury could also be focused on the Trump case alone. Read more at this link.
