Grand juror interviews anger Trump’s lawyers
ATLANTA — Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers in Georgia are criticizing the Fulton County investigation into potential illegal election meddling after the foreperson of the special grand jury seated to help the probe went public this week.
Emily Kohrs first spoke out in an interview published Tuesday by The Associated Press, a story that was followed by interviews in other print and television news outlets. She described some of what happened behind the closed doors of the jury room — including how some witnesses behaved, how prosecutors interacted with witnesses and how some witnesses invoked their rights not to answer certain questions.
Trump attorneys Drew Findling and Jennifer Little said that despite having concerns about the panel’s proceedings from the start, they kept quiet out of respect for the grand jury process. But they said revelations offered by Kohrs this week compelled them to speak up.
“The end product is the reliability of anything that has taken place in there is completely tainted and called into question,” Findling said in an interview with the AP on Wednesday evening. He said he held “no chagrin for a 30-year-old foreperson” who was part of “a failed system.”
“She’s a product of a circus that cloaked itself as a special purpose grand jury,” he said.
Findling and Little said they are on top of all the legal issues in the case and are keeping their options open. They had not filed anything by Thursday morning.
The special grand jury was impaneled at the request of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is investigating whether Trump and his Republican allies committed crimes as they tried to overturn his narrow 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia. The panel did not have the power to indict but instead could offer recommendations for Willis, a Democrat who will ultimately decide whether to seek indictments from a regular grand jury.
Willis’ office has declined to comment on Kohrs’ media appearances, other than to say they weren’t aware of them ahead of time. Spokesperson Jeff Disantis also declined Thursday to comment on Findling’s and Little’s comments.
Findling and Little expressed concern that the special grand jury, which they said was supposed to base its recommendations to the district attorney on evidence and testimony presented in the jury room, was allowed to watch and read news coverage of the case and was aware of some witnesses’ efforts not to testify. Kohrs said prosecutors told the jurors they could read and watch the news but urged them to keep an open mind.
Kohrs also shared numerous anecdotes from the proceedings that she found amusing and was expressive in TV interviews, sometimes laughing or making faces.
Findling and Little said the district attorney’s office, which was advising the special grand jury, should have done a better job of educating grand jurors about the solemnity of the process and the rules and limitations.
“It’s not a joking matter,” Findling said. “It’s not a matter for giggles. It’s not a matter for smiles.”
In a post on his social media network Wednesday, Trump called the Georgia investigation “ridiculous, a strictly political continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt of all time.” He expressed dismay at Kohrs “going around and doing a Media Tour revealing, incredibly, the Grand Jury’s inner workings & thoughts.”
Though Kohrs did not publicly name any individuals the special grand jury recommended for possible indictment, Findling and Little claimed she seemed to implicate Trump in response to media questions about indictments. That’s a problem, Findling said, because they have examined the evidence and remain convinced that “our client did not break any law at all.”
The Trump lawyers also said that this situation could have been avoided if the judge had instructed special grand jury members not to speak to news outlets until after the panel’s full final report is made public.