Georgia grand jury backs indictments, its forewoman says

ATLANTA — A Fulton County special grand jury recommended that multiple people be indicted following a nearly eight-month investigation where it examined potential criminal interference in Georgia’s 2020 elections, according to the jury forewoman.

“It’s not a short list,” Emily Kohrs, 30, said Tuesday in a wide-ranging interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Kohrs declined to disclose whom the special grand jury suggested that District Attorney Fani Willis charge, but she said, “You’re not going to be shocked.”

She served as the leader of the 23-person special grand jury, which met behind closed doors from May 2022 until January and heard testimony from 75 witnesses. Kohrs, who clarified she was speaking for herself and not the grand jury as a whole, is the first of the group to speak publicly about the experience.

Portions of the jury’s final report were released last week, including revelations that at least one witness may have lied to the group under oath.

Jurors said they also unanimously concluded that there was no widespread fraud in Georgia’s 2020 elections. But aside from the perjury allegations, an introduction and conclusion, at least seven sections of the report were kept under seal.

Fulton Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney suggested those portions would likely stay private until after Willis makes charging decisions.

Kohrs said she volunteered to be foreperson of the grand jury because of a longtime interest in politics, even though she said she’s never voted.

Kohrs said the special grand jury heard tape recordings of phone conversations that have already been made public, such as Donald Trump’s Jan. 2, 2021, call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which the president asked Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to swing the election.

But there are recordings of other calls Trump made that the special grand jury heard and which have yet to be made public, Kohrs said.

“We heard a lot of recordings of President Trump on the phone,” she said, declining to give specifics. “Some of these that were privately recorded by people or recorded by a staffer.”

Kohrs also spoke extensively about the witnesses who appeared before the grand jury. She said she swore in late Georgia House Speaker David Ralston holding a Ninja Turtle Popsicle she had just received at an ice cream party thrown by the district attorney’s office.

Gov. Brian Kemp, she said, did not seem like he wanted to be there. And she said several witnesses — fewer than a dozen — had been granted immunity from prosecutors.

Kohrs also said the gravity of the special grand jury’s work wasn’t lost on her. The more the special grand jury delved into its investigation, she said, “I realized there was way too much going on and this should not have been this insane.”