No election fraud, according to a special grand jury looking into Donald Trump’s efforts to have Georgia’s 2020 election results overturned.
A Georgian investigative panel has stated that one or more witnesses may have misled in their testimony during an investigation into former US President Donald Trump’s attempts to rig the results of the state’s 2020 presidential election.
The special grand jury suggested that a Georgia district attorney seek charges for crimes “where the evidence is persuasive” in parts of its inquiry report, which was made public on Thursday. The report did not name the witnesses allegedly accused of lying under oath.
According to the panel, there was no proof of “widespread fraud that could lead to the overturning of the Georgia 2020 presidential election.”
In its investigation into the former president’s erroneous assertions that widespread fraud caused his loss to President Joe Biden in November 2020, the grand jury questioned scores of witnesses, including Trump advisors.
Trump, who will run for president once more in 2024, was not subpoenaed and declined to appear before the Georgia panel. The panel’s final report, the majority of which is still secret, may serve as the foundation for any prospective legal action against Trump and his aides.
If the grand jury believes Georgia’s prosecutors should pursue Trump, it was not made clear in the portions that were made public on Thursday as per a judge’s order.
The report stated that the grand jury had been appointed to look into “a specific issue: the facts and circumstances connected directly or indirectly to possible attempts to undermine the lawful administration of the 2020 presidential elections in the State of Georgia.
” In the US judicial system, a grand jury is normally composed of citizens chosen at random who are responsible with determining if prospective charges against defendants are true.
Nevertheless, the panel in Georgia, which was composed of 26 inhabitants of Fulton County, which includes the city of Atlanta, was a special grand jury; it could only make recommendations regarding charges following an inquiry during which it had the power to compel testimony from witnesses. District Attorney Fani Willis decides whether to charge suspects.
Asserting that Willis, an elected Democrat, targeted him for political gain, Trump, a Republican, has denied any wrongdoing. The incorrect assertion that the 2020 election was “stolen” has also been repeated by him frequently.
‘President Trump did absolutely nothing illegal,’ Trump claimed in a statement uploaded on his Truth Social platform on Thursday. ‘The long expected critical sections of the Georgia report, which do not even mention President Trump’s name, have nothing to do with the president.
During a call in January 2021, Trump encouraged Georgia’s top election official to “find” enough votes to give him a victory in the state. Soon after, Willis began her inquiry.
Days later, a throng of Trump backers surrounded the US Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from confirming Biden’s victory. Trump told state officials during the 2021 conversation that was later leaked to the media, “Look, all I want to do is this: I simply want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.
Considering Trump’s attempts to rig the 2020 elections, notably in Georgia, a congressional commission that looked into the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack over the previous two years has recommended filing criminal charges against him.
The Department of Justice is also looking into Trump’s potential involvement in the disturbance at the Capitol.
Trump would become the first former president to face criminal charges if indicted in Georgia.
