With Monday The Mar-a-Lago Raid, there are even higher expectations that the justice system can hold Donald Trump accountable in some way. But if the Justice Department charges never materialize, many Americans are hoping for an indictment from a special grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia.
They shouldn’t.
In Peach State, prosecutors can form a “special purpose grand jury” to conduct a year-long, deeply researched investigation to uncover evidence of crimes. complex.
However, by law, the 23-member panel can only issue a formal report that suggestions promote. Local attorneys have the authority to read the report and then determine if they assembled a regular jury and actually sought an indictment.
That decision will fall to District Attorney Fani Willis, a first-term Democrat whose first day on the job in 2021 involves hearings about how Trump has just tried to intimidate the top election official. Georgia’s head to “found 11,780 votes“Which doesn’t exist.
She soon reunited a reconfigured public corruption team and set them to work. A year later, they chose a special grand jury starting May 2.
The issue of special jury limits emerged last Friday, when lawyers for Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) brought them to court. Graham is trying to fight a subpoena asking him to testify about a time he asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger if he could simply throw mailed ballots. Pursuing that angle, his lawyers are trying to make it look like the current grand jury is not set up to act.
“The District Attorney never alleges that anyone committed a crime. And really, she’s not forming a criminal grand jury that can prosecute, but a ‘special purpose’ civil investigative body that can’t,” said Brian C. Lea, defense attorney for Senator at the white shoe law firm Jones Day, writes.
However, that doesn’t capture what’s really going on.
According to three legal scholars who have worked for decades in Georgia’s criminal courts, a special-purpose grand jury is actually a powerful vehicle for establishing large criminal cases against against corrupt politicians and drug cartels — especially when you’re taking down a group that acts like a mob.
“In Georgia, it is mainly used for government corruption and secrecy cases. A special-purpose grand jury is an investigative tool that prosecutors can use,” said B. Michael Mears, a professor at the John Marshall School of Law who previously led the state’s public defender’s office.
In some ways, this special grand jury can go where regular grand juries can’t.
In Fulton County, which includes about half of Atlanta’s megalopolis, a grand jury regularly runs for only two months. That could be enough time to investigate a robbery or murder, a current prosecutor said. But as a local attorney takes aim at the former president – who stands on top of a $107 million war chest made from political donations from Republicans across the country. Nationwide for his Save America political action committee – Willis is venturing into uncharted waters. And every step has to be perfect, legal scholars note.
Ronald L. Carlson, head of the University of Georgia law school, said: “Any criminal charges that arise out of this process will be so important, getting national attention to the extent that the district attorney wants to get rid of it. Be careful not to get ripped off.
“This type of investigation is so broad and impactful that it merits, first and foremost, the discovery of the truth by a relatively unlimited time special grand jury. They don’t have to be done by the end of July or something like that,” he said.
Instead, this particular console has until May 2023 to finish its work. And in the meantime, these great juries can be a place for aggressive tactics that don’t fly elsewhere.
For example, witnesses close to a criminal plot can’t be forced to testify and incriminate themselves — hence why people beg the Fifth and keep quiet. But because this is a civil matter, these jurors can recommend that someone “use immunity,” which protects them from criminal charges and forces them to spill the beans.
“You can block testimony. You can force people to testify. And you can prevent them from changing their testimony later,” Mears said. “In a conventional grand jury, that kind of coercion is not used.”
“The special grand jury might say, ‘We don’t appoint. We will ask the judge to let you use the immunity. ‘ If you eliminate the possibility that the person could be prosecuted because they might say something, there’s no point in invoking the Fifth Amendment. It allows the special-purpose grand jury to develop testimony for other citations,” he continued.
It’s unclear whether the special grand jury was successful in getting the South Carolina senator to stand trial in a closed session where he would have to testify under oath — and risk jail time for lying or keeping silent. quiet. Graham’s legal team did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast.
Prosecutors reserve such yearlong grand jury investigations as the case is long and complicated, a current prosecutor in another Georgia region told The Daily Beast. (He requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.)
More than a decade ago, the Gwinnett County district attorney asked local superior court judges to band together when investigating county commissioners for property transactions. When former Commissioner Kevin Kenerly refused to testify in 2010 about how he was bribed, a special-purpose grand jury immediately indicted him. And while a Georgia appeals court later ruled that the jury did not have the authority to charge him, the evidence came out. He left office and pleaded guilty four years later.
Legal scholars explain why it doesn’t make sense to use a regular grand jury to simply impeach Trump. Prosecutors can’t issue subpoenas on their own, so Willis will have to dispatch some sort of grand jury to investigate Trump.
But the regular jury’s tight two-month deadline won’t work either. In Georgia, regularly renewed grand juries are scrutinized by appellate judges, who can overturn their work. And failing to secure an indictment in two separate regular grand jury sessions makes you never really show them in the future with a third grand jury.
Legal scholars also explain that Willis could use this approach to combat cheap criticism that she, a Democrat, is merely subduing politics by attacking Communists. The most hated peace is alive. In a speech at a rally in January, Trump claimed the prosecution was politically motivated and alluded to the idea that she, a Black woman, was motivated by anti-racism. back to him, a white man.
In a separate statement that same month, Trump said, “What this civil special grand jury should consider is not my perfect phone call, but the massive voter fraud that took place. in Georgia. Then they will do a great job for the people. No more political witch hunts! “
But by relying on the work of nearly two dozen fellow Georgians, Willis was able to stay behind his citizenship sample.
“It gives her some political cover,” Mears said. “It also expands her investigative capabilities. She now has 23 congressmen who have the authority to subpoena people. This grand jury can become very independent. They can decide who to ask to come in. “
And all the evidence they collect, including transcripts of witness statements, could be presented to a grand jury in the future for possible charges.
“This grand jury will have a huge impact on the criminal process,” Carlson said.
