Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Atlanta-area DA expects special grand jury in Trump probe to see a lot of activity in June and July

By CNN

Published February 4, 2022 6:24 AM

CNN

By Jamie Crawford, National Security Producer

An Atlanta-area district attorney investigating former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia expects a special grand jury for the case to see a lot of activity in June and July, according to reporting from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday.

CNN reported last week that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had been granted approval for the special grand jury by a judge and that Willis was expecting to seat the panel starting May 2.

Willis told the newspaper in an exclusive interview that although the special grand jury can continue its work through the spring of 2023, it’s possible the group will wrap up before then.

“There’s a possibility that after two months we’ll have all the information we need to press forward. There’s a possibility that after week one that some appellate issue will come and there’s a halt,” she said. “But what I do think is within a year we will have all the information that we need,” she told the paper. “We realize we are coming to a place where there are enough people that will require a subpoena for us to speak to for us to be able to get information and so yes we are headed into phase two and phase two I believe starts when we actually start with a special purpose grand jury.”

Willis previously wrote that her office has “received information indicating a reasonable probability that the State of Georgia’s administration of elections in 2020, including the State’s election of President of the United States, was subject to possible criminal disruptions,” according to a letter sent to Christopher Brasher, chief judge of Fulton County’s Superior Court, and provided by the court.

Though the special grand jury does not have the authority to issue an indictment, it will be able to entirely focus on gathering evidence in the Trump investigation. Willis said she needed such a grand jury in order to issue subpoenas to compel witnesses to testify and to gather additional evidence — a step toward pursuing possible criminal charges.

Willis has been investigating whether Trump or his allies committed any crimes in their campaign to convince Georgia officials to find fraud and hand Trump a victory in the Peach State. The probe was launched last year following Trump’s call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger wherein he pushed the Republican to “find” votes to overturn the election results.

Willis also told the newspaper she has endured a number of racist attacks since her work on the case began.

“I’ve gotten more racist comments in the last year” than she has ever had before, Willis said. “I get called an ‘N’ very regularly. It’s really silly to me that they believe that by hurling those kind of insults that it is going to impact the way we do our investigation. It’s not going to impact me to do something faster, it’s not going to impact me in treating the former President or anyone else unfairly, and it’s not going to make me stop what I have a lawful duty to do.”

Earlier this week, Willis asked for the FBI’s help in providing security for buildings and staff after Trump — at a rally in Conroe, Texas, this past weekend — called prosecutors investigating him “racists” and said his supporters should hold “the biggest protests we have ever had” in cities like Atlanta, New York and Washington if the prosecutors “do anything wrong or illegal.”

“What I’ll tell you is that conversations have begun and I believe that those partnerships are necessary to keep all of us here safe,” she told the paper.

CNN’s Jason Morris, Sara Murray and Paul LeBlanc contributed to this report.