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Donald Trump baselessly boasted Thursday on his Truth Social site that released excerpts of a Georgia special grand jury investigation into attempts by the former president and his allies to upend his 2020 election loss in the state was a “total exoneration” of him.
Trump even thanked the grand jury for its “patriotism” and “courage,” adding, “The USA is very proud of you.”
The former president claimed that he was in the clear because his name was not mentioned. But no individuals were named in the five-page section of the report released Thursday, as ordered by Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney.
The excepts don’t reveal what specific charges the 23-member panel has recommended be filed against which individuals. But most members believe that “perjury may have been committed by one or more” of the 75 witnesses who appeared before them and recommended “appropriate indictments” for lying on the witness stand, according to the documents. Trump did not testify before the panel.
McBurney, who oversaw the special grand jury and ordered release of the excerpts, honored Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ request that no names or various other details be publicly revealed at this time.
The rest of the panel’s findings remained private — including what McBurney has described as “a roster of who should (or should not) be indicted, and for what, in relation to the conduct (and aftermath) of the 2020 general election in Georgia.”
Willis has said in court that charging decisions were “imminent.”
The grand jury determined that there was “no evidence” of widespread election fraud — as Trump still claims, more than two years after Joe Biden’s inauguration.
Despite the lack of evidence of election fraud in the state, Trump told Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, in a recorded phone call after all votes had been tallied and rechecked to “find him” just enough votes to beat Biden after the fact.
“Fellas, I need 11,000 votes,” Trump said on the call, which included the state’s general counsel. “Give me a break.”
That call was a key reason for the grand jury investigation.
Trump, referring to himself on Truth Social in the third person on Thursday, insisted that the “President” participated in “perfect phone calls regarding election integrity in Georgia, which he is entitled to do.”
What he’s not entitled to do is to coerce officials to change the results of an election without cause.
The special grand jury noted that it heard “extensive testimony on the subject of alleged election fraud from poll workers, investigators, technical experts and state of Georgia employees and officials, as well as from persons still claiming that such fraud took place.”
But “we find by a unanimous vote that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning that election,” the report noted.
As a “special” grand jury, the panel lacked the authority to indict. But it did make recommendations about what charges to bring against which people via a regular grand jury, which meets for two-month sessions throughout the year.
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