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The judge overseeing the grand jury that investigated whether then-President Donald Trump and his team illegally interfered with the election process in Georgia following the 2020 election has spoken publicly after the jury’s foreperson went on a media tour discussing the case.
After Emily Kohrs disclosed several recommended indictments and shared stories from the grand jury’s extensive evidence-gathering process, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who presided over the special grand jury, spoke with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) on Wednesday.
“They cannot discuss their deliberations,” McBurney said, referencing instructions he gave members of the grand jury regarding discussions with the media and others involving their work.
“So the question becomes what deliberations are, and I explained that would be the discussions they had amongst themselves when it was just the grand jurors in the room … when they were discussing what do we do with what we’ve learned,” he continued.
As per the report, McBurney stated that grand jurors are allowed to discuss the events that took place in the grand jury room but only in the presence of a prosecutor or a witness.
“That’s not deliberations,” the judge said. “That’s presentation. And they’re not prohibited from talking about that, nor are they prohibited from talking about the fruit of their deliberations, which would be the final report.”
The judge had recently made public some parts of the special grand jury’s report, which included a statement that a “majority” of the panel believed that one or more witnesses had committed perjury. The specific details of their recommendations for charges, however, have not been disclosed. The findings of the special grand jury, which heard from 75 witnesses, may soon be used by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, to pursue charges by convening a separate grand jury.
Kohrs, a 30-year-old who resides in Fulton County, Georgia, provided an insider’s perspective into the investigation of the special grand jury during a series of media interviews on Tuesday.
Although Kohrs did not reveal the identity of any individuals who may have been recommended for charges, nor did she provide details about the alleged crimes, she did suggest to NBC News that the special grand jury’s recommendations for indictments are “not a short list” and hinted that former President Donald Trump “might” be included. She even said she thought it would have been “really cool” to subpoena and swear in Trump with a smile.
Kohrs told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the grand jury opted not to subpoena the former president due to concerns about limited time and resources. In an interview with CNN, Kohrs expressed that she would feel “sad” and “frustrated” if the district attorney chose not to pursue charges.
Georgia grand jury foreperson: "I will be sad" if the DA decides against bringing charges against Trump … I will be frustrated if nothing happens." pic.twitter.com/9RfusUCjUX
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 22, 2023
Legal experts said they believe that the former president may have caught a huge break in a case involving a grand jury investigation for alleged election tampering in Georgia following the 2020 election.
On Wednesday, the foreperson for the grand jury, Emily Kohrs, did several interviews with various left-leaning media outlets and appeared to express extreme bias against the former president with some of her remarks, leading experts to question whether she has now tainted the entire process.
“This is a horrible idea, and I guarantee you that prosecutors are wincing watching her go on” the TV and make her statements, Eric Honig, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
“I was wincing just watching her eagerness to, like, you know, hint at stuff,” Cooper replied.
“This is a very serious prospect here,” Honig continued. “Indicting any person, we’re talking about potentially taking away that person’s liberty. We’re talking about, potentially, a former president” being indicted “for the first time in this nation’s history. She does not seem to be taking that very seriously.”
“There’s no reason for her to be out talking,” Anderson offered — though Kohrs also gave an interview to his network.
“No!” Honig exclaimed. “It’s a prosecutor’s nightmare. Mark my words, Donald Trump’s team is going to make a motion if there’s an indictment to dismiss that indictment based on grand jury impropriety. She’s not supposed to be talking about — anything, really — but she’s really not supposed to be talking about the deliberations” of the grand jury.
Other experts were appalled as well.
“As an American citizen, I am gratified to hear that a Georgia special grand jury has recommended indictments against more than a dozen people for election fraud. But as a former prosecutor, I am mortified that a grand juror is talking about it publicly,” Barbara McQuade wrote for left-wing MSNBC.
