Fulton's special Trump grand jury has historic task

[Nevilledog]

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Norm Eisen
@NormEisen
Bringing charges, if supported, would be a critical step towards punishing Trump’s assault on Georgia’s democracy and to deter him or others from trying to do so in the future.

@KeyesFlem & I explain @ajc (paywall)👇

ajc.com
Opinion: Fulton’s special Trump grand jury has historic task
As we have long argued, former President Donald Trump is at substantial risk of indictment as a result of his potential violations of state election law in Georgia – and perhaps elsewhere – after he...
8:32 AM · Jan 28, 2022

https://www.ajc.com/opinion/opinion-fultons-special-trump-grand-jury-has-historic-task/VGV4DVELVFAVRIDS27WX5PFPUU/

As we have long argued, former President Donald Trump is at substantial risk of indictment as a result of his potential violations of state election law in Georgia – and perhaps elsewhere – after he lost the 2020 election. But Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ recently granted request for a special grand jury only heightens this risk for the former president. It shows that the District Attorney is serious about fully investigating the alleged crimes Trump committed to try and circumvent democracy in Georgia.

The ex-president is in this position thanks to his well-documented attempts to challenge the election results even after the votes were counted, re-counted and certified in Georgia and across the nation and Joe Biden was announced the winner. After being rejected by courts across the nation in 60 baseless lawsuits, Trump resorted to even more questionable tactics. On Jan. 2, 2021, he called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and pressured him to “find 11,780 votes” for Biden that could be tossed out — exactly one more vote than Biden’s margin of victory in Georgia — to overturn the results in the state and overthrow the will of millions of Georgians.

Convening a special purpose grand jury for the Trump investigation makes good sense under these circumstances. A special purpose grand jury gathers a group of community members for a longer term than a normal grand jury. This allows them to amass the relevant facts and analyze the law to give an extra level of confidence in the recommendations they will make in a final report. Unlike regular grand juries, the special grand jury cannot return an indictment, but their recommendations can be presented to a regular grand jury, which can then indict. And as DA Willis indicates, the special grand jury will also have subpoena authority and other tools to assist investigators in doing their job and in completing the investigation.

This ability to fully investigate and subpoena evidence is critical because, as we argued in our report from the Brookings Institution, the publicly available evidence may support charging Trump with several crimes under Georgia election law and other criminal statutes. For instance, Trump’s demand to Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” could constitute criminal solicitation to commit election fraud if the evidence ultimately shows that Trump intended that Raffensperger do as he asked. Everything in the public record – including Trump’s threat that the failure to find the nonexistent votes would pose a “big risk” to Raffensperger and his staff – indicates that Trump seemingly wanted Raffensperger to find enough votes to overturn the election results.

*snip*

[kentuck]

1. He should be forced to defend himself against those charges.

He should be indicted.