Judge orders partial release of Trump special grand jury report in US state of Georgia

By Darren Lyn

HOUSTON, US (AA) - A judge in the US state of Georgia ordered the partial release Monday of a special grand jury report investigating whether former President Donald Trump and his colleagues broke any laws in trying to overturn Trump's 2020 presidential election loss in that state.

In the ruling, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said he would allow three parts of the report to be released to the public, according to multiple news outlets: the introduction, the conclusion and section eight.

McBurney said that in section eight, the special grand jury discussed its concern that "some witnesses may have lied under oath during their testimony." He said it could be included in part of the release because the jury does not identify the witnesses.

The excerpts of the report are scheduled to be released to the public Thursday.

The special grand jury, which by law cannot indict anyone, voted after nearly a year of investigation to have their findings made public.

However, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis asked the court last month to not release the report, saying that "decisions are imminent" and the release of the report could impact the possibility of a fair trial for future defendants connected to the probe.

"We want to make sure that everyone is treated fairly," said Willis.

The report is expected to include recommendations for Willis on possible criminal prosecution, but it will ultimately be up to Willis whether she decides to seek indictments from a regular grand jury.

Willis began investigating shortly after a recording of a January 2021 phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger became public. In that call, the former president suggested that the state’s top elections official, a fellow Republican, could "find" the votes needed to overturn his loss to Joe Biden.

"I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have," Trump said on that call. "Because we won the state."

The grand jury interviewed 75 witnesses, including high-profile Trump allies such as Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani.