September 8, 2023 Judge rejects Mark Meadows' bid to move 2020 election case

The special grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, also recommended charges against three one-time or current allies of former President Donald Trump: former adviser Michael Flynn, adviser Boris Epshteyn and attorney Cleta Mitchell, according to the report released by a judge Friday.

None of them ended up facing charges when Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis returned an indictment last month against Trump and 18 co-defendants in a sprawling racketeering case regarding alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. They have denied wrongdoing.

Flynn, who was briefly Trump’s national security adviser in 2017, promoted baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. He informally advised Trump after the election, attending at least one meeting at the White House. He urged Trump to use the military to seize voting machines and “re-run an election” in states that he lost. (Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI as part of the Russia probe in 2017, but Trump pardoned him before leaving office.) A lawyer for Flynn criticized the Fulton County prosecution after the release of the special grand jury’s final report, calling it "baseless." 

Epshteyn, a Trump campaign advisor, helped organize illegitimate slates of pro-Trump electors in battleground states that Biden actually won. He was also at the “command center” at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC, where he worked with Trump allies on ways to overturn the 2020 election. 

Mitchell, a conservative lawyer, got involved with Trump’s campaign shortly after the 2020 election, when White House chief of staff Mark Meadows asked her to go to Georgia. She was a volunteer legal adviser there and helped the campaign file a lawsuit in seeking to invalidate Georgia’s results by claiming fraud. Mitchell was on the phone with Trump when he pressured Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” the votes needed to overturn the election.  

Kara Scannell. Sara Murray, Kristen Holmes, Jeremy Herb and Hannah Rabinowitz contributed reporting to this post.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, who appeared before the special grand jury last year after a court battle over his testimony, spoke with Georgia election officials after the 2020 election. His phone calls with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his staff related to the possibility of finding enough fraud in the state that it could’ve tipped the election to Trump.

Raffensperger testified to the House January 6 committee that his phone call with Graham made him “uncomfortable” because some of Graham’s suggestions could have led to “disenfranchising voters.”

Graham repeatedly prodded Raffensperger and his colleagues on the phone about signature-matching of ballots in the Atlanta area. Raffensperger told CNN in November 2020 that he believed Graham “implied” that he should try to “throw out’ some ballots in the heavily Democratic county.

Graham denies wrongdoing and disputed this characterization of the call. Graham argued in his fight against the Fulton County subpoena that his calls to Georgia officials were legislative activity directly related to his responsibilities as then-chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He also argued that his actions should be protected by the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause.

The special grand jury also recommended charges against former GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. Perdue, who lost his Senate run-off election in January 2021 while Trump was pushing his false claims of fraud, personally urged Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to convene a special session of the legislature to help Trump’s quest to overturn the election. Loeffler, who also lost her runoff election in January 2021, was also at the meeting.

The special grand jury in Fulton County recommended charges against Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and former GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, according to the special counsel grand jury report released by a judge Friday.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis did not charge them when she returned an indictment last month against former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants in the sprawling racketeering case.

It was up to the district attorney to decide how closely to stick to the special grand jury’s recommendations.

Last year, Perdue launched an unsuccessful Trump-backed primary challenge to unseat Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, which relied heavily on false claims of election fraud made during the 2020 election. 

Special grand juries in Georgia cannot issue indictments and instead serve as an investigative tool. This special grand jury began hearing evidence in June 2022, and Willis used it to investigate efforts to overturn the 2020 election, an investigation sparked by Trump’s January 2021 phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger where Trump asked him to “find” the votes he needed to win the state.

The panel ultimately heard from 75 witnesses.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney previously released very limited portions of the special grand jury’s final report, holding back the full release until after Willis announced indictments.

Here's the full released report from the special grand jury that investigated former President Donald Trump’s actions after the 2020 election:

A Georgia state judge has released a report from the special grand jury that investigated former President Donald Trump’s actions after the 2020 election, which paved the way for the Fulton County district attorney’s sprawling indictment on racketeering charges. 

The report includes the special grand jury’s charging recommendations for the district attorney, Fani Willis. It was up to Willis, though, to decide how closely to stick to the special grand jury’s recommendations. Ultimately, Willis indicted Trump and 18 co-defendants.

Portions of the highly anticipated report from a special grand jury in Georgia that investigated Donald Trump’s actions in the state after the 2020 election and recommended a number of people be indicted for alleged crimes were released in February, and Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney is expected to release the full final report on Friday.

The special grand jury “unanimously” concluded that there wasn’t widespread voter fraud in Georgia in 2020, rejecting Trump’s conspiracy theories after hearing “extensive testimony” from election officials, poll workers and other experts.

“We find by a unanimous vote that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning that election,” it added.

The grand jury’s conclusions on the fraud matter were important because it once again established that Trump was attempting to overturn the results of a legitimate election.

The special grand jury recommended that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis consider indicting some witnesses for perjury.

The grand jury “received evidence from or involving 75 witnesses during the course of this investigation, the overwhelming majority of which information was delivered in person under oath.” But jurors clearly weren’t satisfied.

Perjury “may have been committed by one or more witnesses testifying before it,” according to portions of the report. “The Grand Jury recommends that the District Attorney seek appropriate indictments for such crimes where the evidence is compelling.”

How the special grand jury operated: Parts of the special grand jury report released Thursday shed light on how the panel – which had 26 members, including three alternates – operated behind closed doors over the past several months.

The grand jury began hearing evidence on June 1, 2022, having been empaneled a month earlier, and heard from 75 witnesses who played a range of roles in the 2020 election in Georgia. That testimony was usually delivered under oath.

The grand jury also reviewed physical and digital evidence, as well as the testimony from investigators and the input of team of assistant district attorneys who outlined for the grand jury the applicable statutes and procedures.

Former President Donald Trump and his 18 co-defendants have been accused of breaking a variety of criminal laws in the Georgia 2020 election subversion case, but one crime ties all their alleged misconduct together: the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

The state law — which is commonly referred to as RICO — is similar to the federal version of the statute that targets so-called criminal enterprises. Georgia’s law allows prosecutors to pull an array of conduct – including activities that took place outside of the state of Georgia but may have been part of a broad conspiracy — into their indictments.

Those convicted of racketeering charges also face steeper penalties, a point of leverage for prosecutors if they are hoping to flip potential co-conspirators or encourage defendants to take plea deals.

For Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, the law has been her calling card. The Atlanta-area prosecutor has used it in a number of high-profile cases she’s previously brought in Georgia against school officials, gangs and musicians, including the rapper Young Thug.

What's being accused in this case: The historic 41-count indictment accuses Trump and the other defendants of being part of a broad conspiracy to attempt to overturn the 2020 election result in Georgia.

“The enterprise constituted an ongoing organization whose members and associates functioned as a continuing unit for a common purpose of achieving the objectives of the enterprise,” the 98-page indictment states.

“The enterprise operated in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in the State of Georgia, in other states, including, but not limited to, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and in the District of Columbia,” the indictment adds.

Prosecutors say the criminal actions the charge is built around include: making false statements, filing false documents and forgeries, impersonating officials, computer breaches and attempts to influence witnesses.

Several of the acts alleged to have made up the racketeering conspiracy involved states other than Georgia. White and other legal experts stressed that Willis’ use of RICO against Trump and his co-defendants will allow prosecutors to easily tie alleged conduct into their case.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis delivered a scathing response to House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan’s demands for information about her investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, slamming the Republican for trying to “interfere with an active criminal case,” according to a new letter.

Willis condemned Jordan’s investigation into her case against former President Donald Trump and his allies. She said the Jordan probe’s “obvious purpose is to obstruct a Georgia criminal proceeding and to advance outrageous partisan misrepresentations.”

She argued “there is no justification in the Constitution for Congress to interfere with a state criminal matter, as you attempt to do.” 

Dismissing Jordan’s requests for a broad array of documents pertaining to her investigation, Willis argued Congress does not have the jurisdiction to seek information about her ongoing criminal investigation. 

Willis did voluntarily provide information about the federal funds her office receives. She said her office has received more than $14 million in federal grants for a variety of programs, including addressing violent crime, at-risk youth and domestic violence.

By providing the explanations for each grant, Willis seems to be trying to get ahead of a common refrain from Jordan and other House Republicans, who say the government has been weaponized against conservatives and have threatened to cut funding to federal law enforcement.  

“If you and your colleagues follow through on your threats to deny this office federal funds, please be aware that you will be deciding to allow serial rapists to go unprosecuted, hate crimes to be unaddressed, and to cancel programs for at-risk children,” Willis wrote. “Such vengeful, uncalled for legislative action would impose serious harm on the citizens we serve, including the fact that it will make them less safe.”

CNN has reached out to Jordan’s office for comment.

Willis also attached a series of threats against her and her family. 

CNN's Jason Morris contributed reporting to this post.

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday formally notified the judge overseeing the Georgia election subversion case that he “may” try to move his state case into federal court.

Trump’s lawyers have previously said they would try to move the case, which could help him get the charges dropped by invoking immunity protections for federal officials.

The 30-day clock began on August 31, when Trump waived his right to an arraignment hearing and entered a not guilty plea.

There are several potential benefits for Trump if he can move the state case into federal court.

It would give him additional avenues to get the charges dropped if he can convince a judge that his alleged actions in the indictment were tied to his formal duties as a government official.

If the case stays in state court, the jurors will all come from Fulton County, which President Joe Biden won by a 47-point margin. If the case moves to federal court, the jury pool will be culled from a 10-county region near Atlanta that Biden won by 32 points, a narrower but still comfortable margin.

Several of Trump’s 19 co-defendants are already attempting to move their case to federal court.