NEW YORK (Dagbladet): Trump and his associates pressed local election authorities hard after the election defeat in 2020.
Despite countless recounts, investigations and rounds in the legal apparatus, nothing has been found to indicate extensive electoral fraud. Yet Trump and his people have continued to claim this without any documentation.
Recommends prosecution for perjury
Georgia is one of the states Trump lost by a small margin. On January 2, Trump called the state’s Secretary of the Interior, Brad Raffensperger. The conversation was recorded and leaked to the Washington Post. In the conversation, Trump demands that the Republican Raffensperger “find” 11,780 votes. That’s one more vote than Trump lost by. The call sparked a criminal investigation into Trump and his supporters. In recent months, a grand jury has heard the prosecution’s evidence.
– Not a short list
Now the foreman of the grand jury, Emily Kohrs (30), tells the New York Times that they have recommended that a wide range of indictments be issued in the case.
– It is not a short list, says Kohrs.
However, she will not name the people they want to be prosecuted as the judge in the case has decided to keep this out of the public eye.
However, the special grand jury does not have the opportunity to issue indictments. Now, instead, the state attorney in Fulton County in Georgia, Fani T. Willis, will decide which possible indictments she will take forward to a regular grand jury.
New document discovery
– You won’t be shocked. This is not rocket science, says Kohrs when asked by the New York Times whether they have recommended that Trump should be prosecuted.
Last week, some small parts of the jury’s report were made public. There they say they have seen possible evidence that “one or more” witnesses have lied to them.
– Delicious
– There won’t be a giant plot twist. You probably have a good idea of what is in this report. I try very hard to say this in a delicate way, says Kohrs.
Trump himself has described the famous phone call as a “perfect phone call”. He denies that he has done anything wrong, calling the whole thing a witch hunt.
– We definitely started with the first phone call to Raffensperger, which became so public, says Kohrs.
At the same time, she emphasizes that they also went through other events in the wake of the 2020 election.
Many witnesses
Among other things, the jury has heard testimony from 75 witnesses. Some of them are high-profile Trump supporters such as Senator Lindsey Graham and lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Others are local union representatives. Several of the witnesses are said to have come in to testify after they had already entered into immunity agreements with the prosecution, writes AP.
Refused to answer 400 times
Trump’s lawyers have said he was never asked to testify. Kohrs says the jury wanted to hear from him, but they didn’t think he would give a meaningful testimony.
– Trump was a battle we chose not to fight, she tells the news agency.
The Atlanta investigation has been seen as one of the biggest legal threats to Trump, who is surrounded by investigations and lawsuits.
In January, the state attorney in Manhattan also began presenting evidence to another grand jury that will consider whether Trump should be indicted for having paid kickbacks to a porn star during the 2016 election campaign.
At the same time, Trump has announced that he is again trying to become the Republican presidential candidate.
