Judge to consider release of grand jury report on Trump Georgia election probe

Summer Concepcion and Vaughn Hillyard and Dareh Gregorian and Blayne Alexander
Updated ·2 min read
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A judge is set to hold a hearing Tuesday to consider whether to release a report by a Georgia special grand jury into whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies unlawfully attempted to interfere with the 2020 election results.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney will determine whether to release the report after hearing arguments from the district attorney’s office, news organizations and potentially attorneys representing witnesses in the grand jury’s investigation.

The attorneys representing Trump in the investigation told NBC News that they “will not be present nor participating” in Tuesday’s hearing. They asserted that Trump was never subpoenaed or asked to voluntarily testify before the grand jury.

McBurney, who was overseeing the panel, issued an order Monday dissolving the special grand jury. The order says the grand jurors completed a final report and that a majority of the county's superior court judges voted to dissolve the special grand jury. (Ben Gray / AP)
McBurney, who was overseeing the panel, issued an order Monday dissolving the special grand jury. The order says the grand jurors completed a final report and that a majority of the county's superior court judges voted to dissolve the special grand jury. (Ben Gray / AP)

In their statement, Trump’s attorneys make no mention of any intention to fight the release of the report.

“Therefore, we can assume that the grand jury did their job and looked at the facts and the law, as we have, and concluded there were no violations of the law by President Trump,” they said.

McBurney said in a ruling this month that the special grand jury had completed its final report and submitted it to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office. The judge did not indicate what the findings were, but the report is expected to include recommendations on possible criminal prosecution.

The grand jury, which recommended that its report be made public, does not have the power to issue indictments. Willis will determine whether to present evidence to a grand jury for indictments.

Willis called for the special grand jury last year because it has the authority to issue subpoenas for witnesses to testify. The panel has heard testimony from multiple figures in Trump’s inner circle, including attorney Rudy Giuliani and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Top Georgia officials, such as Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — both Republicans whom Trump and his allies tried to pressure into overturning the 2020 election results — also testified.

Willis opened the investigation in early 2021 after a recording surfaced of a phone call that January between Trump and Raffensperger. The then-president pressed Raffensperger to “find” the votes needed to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

"All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state,” Trump said in the call.

In a post on his social media platform, Trump on Tuesday repeated his oft-stated claim that the call was "PERFECT, nothing done or said wrong."

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com