Sept. 8 (UPI) — The Georgia grand jury that indicted former President Donald Trump and 18 others initially recommended charging more than twice as many people, including two former U.S. senators and Sen. Lindsey Graham, the panel’s full report, released Friday, shows.
The Fulton County grand jury examining whether crimes were committed in the national effort to overturn the state’s 2020 president election recommended charges against Graham, R-S.C., and former U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, both Georgia Republicans.
Perdue and Loeffler were in office at the time of the election, but were unseated in runoffs by Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnoff as Trump escalated his claims of election fraud, with a focus on Georgia.
The report noted that a juror voted against indicting them as their statements after the election “did not give rise to their being guilty of a criminal conspiracy.”
Graham had been subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury as he was one of the prominent Republicans that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said pressured him to overturn Joe Biden’s victory.
Besides the three senators, 18 others were recommended for indictment, but ultimately not charged, including Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn and attorneys Boris Epshteyn and Cleta Mitchell.
The report filed with the Fulton County Clerk recommended Trump be indicted for the phone call to Raffensperger.
Trump was indicted last month, along with 18 others, including his former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and attorneys Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman.
The grand jury identified several crimes, including a “fake electors” scheme, the Raffensberger call and Coffee County Georgia voting machines being accessed by unauthorized Trump allies, all in an effort to subvert the election.
Many of the recommended indictments were linked to the national effort to overturn the presidential election results in Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia.
The special grand jury’s report also definitively reiterated that there was no widespread election fraud in Georgia as claimed by Trump and his supporters.
“The grand jury heard extensive testimony on the subject of alleged election fraud from poll workers, investigators, technical experts and state of Georgia employees and officials, as well as from persons still claiming such fraud took place. We find by a unanimous vote that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election,” the report said.
