Georgia grand jury recommended charges for 21 additional Trump allies in election case

Geoff Bennett:

A newly released report reveals, a special grand jury in Georgia recommended charges for twice as many people than the 19 ultimately indicted for efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Amna Nawaz:

Those 19, including former President Donald Trump, all pleaded not guilty earlier this week.

But the Fulton County district attorney has not brought charges against the 21 others named in this report, including three U.S. senators and a former senior White House official.

Here to unpack the unsealed report and what it may reveal about the case is Chris Timmons, a former county prosecutor in Georgia and law professor at Georgia State University.

Chris Timmons, welcome, and thanks for joining us.

Before we get into this special grand jury report, I want to ask you about some news we just received late this evening. A judge has ruled against the former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows' request to move his case from Georgia to a federal court. Tell us your reaction to that. Is that what we expected?

Chris Timmons, Former Georgia Prosecutor:

That's exactly what I expected, Amna.

I think, when you look at the case as far as the removal issue, what's important there is whether Mr. Meadows was acting under color of his office. In other words, was Mark Meadows acting as the chief of staff to the president of the United States or was he acting as a part of the campaign?

And what the judge found in that opinion was that Mr. Meadows was acting as a part of the campaign, not as the chief of staff to the president. Accordingly, it would not be proper to remove the case from state court to federal court.

Amna Nawaz:

OK, so Meadows' indictment was a result of that grand jury process that also led to the indictment of 18 others, including former President Trump.

I want to ask you about this special grand jury in the report that was released today, just to start with briefly explaining who that special grand jury is. How do they fit into the process?

Chris Timmons:

Sure.

So there are two types of grand juries in Georgia. One is called a special purpose grand jury. And the other one is the grand jury that we think of just a regular grand jury. A special purpose grand jury can be impaneled by the superior court judges of any county when they decide that there's an investigation that needs to happen that's going to last longer than the term of court.

And, in Fulton County, that's more than two months. Here, knowing that there was going to be a wide-ranging investigation, massive in scope, they realized that the investigation wasn't going to be able to happen in the two months that's typically allotted to a grand jury. So they constituted a special purpose grand jury that operated for a year.

And under that special purpose grand jury, they don't have the power to indict, like a regular grand jury does. They only have the power to issue a report. They did that when they concluded. That report was then put under seal. And that seal was broken today by the report being issued by or released by Judge McBurney.

Amna Nawaz:

So, we know among those not charged, despite the fact that the special grand jury recommended indictments, are some familiar names to folks, including Senator Lindsey Graham, former Georgia Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn.

Chris, what are some of the reasons the prosecutors might not charge someone, even though a grand jury recommends they do so?

Chris Timmons:

So, there's a couple of reasons.

I think you're going to find that, with regard to some of the individuals listed in the special purpose grand jury's report, that they have cut deals with the state. In other words, they have flipped them. And as a part of being flipped, they were offered immunity.

I think some of it also is, you have got a wide-ranging indictment. It's about 98 pages' long with 19 defendants in it. It's not uncommon when you have got a massive criminal scheme to narrow it. I did a cocaine RICO conspiracy here in Georgia. We started off with 45 defendants. We ultimately whittled it down to, coincidentally, 19 as well just to make it easier on us.

And so the defendants that were left out of the indictment, out of the RICO indictment, may be charged in different indictments later on down the road, but just for ease of moving forward. And if you have got deals cut, they're not going to appear within it.

And, finally, I mean, it's a RICO indictment. And so, in order to move forward on a RICO indictment, you have got to prove that every person who's in the RICO indictment is a part of the conspiracy.

If you have defendants that don't neatly fit within the conspiracy, you're going to leave them out. And I suspect that's what happened to some of the defendants here or potential defendants here.

Amna Nawaz:

Could any of these individuals who are not charged now also be called to testify in the trials of the folks who were charged?

Chris Timmons:

Absolutely. They could be called by the state. They could also be called by the defense.

So I suspect, particularly with regard to Senator Lindsey Graham, based on the comments that he made today, I would anticipate that the defense is going to call him. We will see. And then there's some logistical issues with regard to subpoenaing him, bringing him in from out of state, et cetera.

I wouldn't expect the state to call him when he suggests that he wasn't a part of a criminal conspiracy, but, nevertheless, he could be. And, certainly, there are other individuals. If they were flipped, if they cut deals with the state, you should expect to see testimony from them as this case moves forward towards trial.

Amna Nawaz:

That is Chris Timmons, former county prosecutor in Georgia, law professor at Georgia State University, joining us tonight.

Chris, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity.