The Georgia grand jury investigating Trump election interference is adjourning and has begun writing a final report

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CNN —

A special grand jury investigating efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to subvert the 2020 election in Georgia has suspended its work, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The Atlanta-area special grand jury is almost done hearing witness testimony and has begun writing its final report, sources said, an indication that prosecutors will soon decide whether to seek criminal charges and against whom. .

In Georgia, special grand juries are not authorized to issue indictments. The final report serves as a mechanism for the panel to recommend whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should pursue charges in her investigation into election interference. Willis can go before a regularly empaneled grand jury to seek indictments.

This is a significant step, it is the culmination of the work of the prosecutors and the special grand jury. But it shouldn’t be taken as any kind of guarantee of a future conviction, said Michael J. Moore, former US attorney for the Middle District of Georgia. This is just the beginning.

Prosecutors expect to proceed with indictments in December, sources told CNN. But the court resisted testimony from high-profile witnesses, such as South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows have all been ordered to testify before a special grand jury. the indictments are likely to be moved to 2023, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Willis has already informed Rudy Giuliani and 16 Republicans who served as pro-Trump bogus electors in the state that they are targets of his investigation. He’s also vetting Trump and other top lieutenants, including Meadows.

The next phase in the Georgia investigation comes at a politically and legally dangerous time for Trump. His new 2024 presidential campaign is underway, and he is under investigation by the Justice Department both for his handling of classified government documents after leaving the White House and for his activities around the January 6, 2021, attacks on the US Capitol and efforts to inflate the results of the 2020 election. Federal investigators are also looking into several Trump associates involved in the unsuccessful effort to subvert the presidential election.

Some experts outside the law caution, however, that any case against Trump is far from a slam dunk.

When there is a public case, the games begin. It will be fought in the court of law and the court of public opinion, Moore said.

If prosecutors hope to bring a successful case against Trump or his allies, they will have to prove that their activities went beyond the usual efforts to win an election and veered into criminal territory.

“I just think when you’re taking on a political figure like this, it’s a much more difficult case,” Moore said. Every candidate wants to win, every candidate is doing everything they can to win, and they are exploring every option.

Willis has already spent more than a year digging into Trump and his associates, beginning his investigation in early 2021, soon after a call in January became public in which Trump pressured the Secretary of Georgia State Brad Raffensperger to find the votes necessary for Trump to win the Peach State in the presidential election.

Trump lost to Joe Biden in Georgia by nearly 12,000 votes in 2020. The former president insisted there was no problem with his activities protesting the 2020 election in Georgia and described his call to Raffensperger as a perfect phone call.

The Willis investigation has long expanded beyond the call to include false statements on election fraud made to state legislators; the fake elector scheme; efforts by unauthorized individuals to access voting machines in a Georgia county; and threats and harassment against election workers.

The special grand jury consisting of 23 jurors and three alternates convened in May 2022, with the power to subpoena witnesses and documents and otherwise investigate efforts to tamper with the results of Georgia’s presidential election. . The panel is authorized to continue its work until May 2023, but Willis has signaled for months that he expects to finish the grand jury’s investigative work before then.

A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office declined to comment. A Trump spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

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