Georgia Trump probe's sealed potential indictments aren't 'rocket science,' says forewoman

The forewoman of the Fulton County, Georgia, special grand jury tasked with investigating former President Donald Trump's efforts to subvert his 2020 presidential election loss in the state confirmed that she and her colleagues had recommended multiple people for criminal indictments, telling The New York Times that it's "not a short list."

Forewoman Emily Kohrs' acknowledgment that the jury empaneled nearly a year ago had put forward a number of names for potential indictment comes on the heels of a heavily redacted report released last week by supervising Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney. That report did not enumerate who might be charged with what, but did state that a "majority" of jurors believed that multiple witnesses had perjured themselves during their testimony to the panel. It also affirmed that jurors found "no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning that election" — Trump's purported basis for pressuring officials to declare him the victor. Among those efforts was a now-infamous phone call between the then-president and Georgia's Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which Trump urged Raffensperger "to find 11,780 votes" in his favor.

Asked whether Trump himself was included in the list of recommended indictees, Kohrs — who reportedly did not vote in 2020 and was only superficially familiar with the former president's election subversion efforts when she was tapped to lead the grand jury — told the Times that "if the judge releases the recommendations, it is not going to be some giant plot twist," adding that she was "trying very hard to say that delicately."

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"You're not going to be shocked," she said. "It's not rocket science."

While Trump himself didn't testify before the panel ("Trump was not a battle we picked to fight" Kohrs told The Associated Press, adding that jurors didn't think he could add anything meaningful to their investigation), a number of his advisers and associates did, including Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). According to AP, "at least one person who resisted answering questions became much more cooperative when prosecutors offered him immunity in front of the jurors."

Kohl's cryptic preview of potential indictments was also foreshadowed by District Attorney Fani Willis and McBurney, who have said they chose not to publish the list of recommended indictees in deference to the due process rights of any "future defendants."