An Atlanta judge will hear legal arguments today to determine whether he should release a Georgia grand jury report into whether former President Donald Trump committed any criminal offenses when he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state.
Before the special purpose grand jury disbanded two weeks ago after months of hearings, its members recommended releasing its findings while the Fulton County prosecutor who launched the investigation, Fani Willis, decides to sue Trump.
Lawyers said they believe Trump faced “substantial risk of prosecution” in Georgia for his attempts to force officials to fix the election in his favor when it looked like the state could decide the outcome of the election. ‘presidential election. At least 18 other people have been told they could also be sued, including Trump’s ally and close attorney, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge who oversaw the grand jury, Robert McBurney, will hear from Willis but not from Trump’s attorneys, who said Monday they would not attend the hearing. They said Willis did not seek to interview the former president for the investigation.
“Therefore, we can assume that the grand jury did their job and considered the facts and the law, as we did, and concluded that there was no violation of the law by the President Trump,” the attorneys said in a statement.
Willis’ office did not say what her position will be at the hearing, but the prosecutor might see benefit in releasing at least part of the report if she intends to pursue the charges.
The rarely used special purpose grand jury cannot issue indictments; if he recommends prosecution, Willis would be required to ask a regular grand jury to formalize the charges.
McBurney is not expected to decide immediately whether the report should be released.
