Fulton County DA says charging decisions to come this summer in 2020 election probe
Written by ABC Audio. All rights reserved. on April 25, 2023
(ATLANTA) — The Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney who has been probing possible criminal interference in the 2020 election will announce her charging decisions “in the near future,” the DA alerted law enforcement in a letter Monday.
The correspondence from District Attorney Fani Willis served as notice “to ensure that our law enforcement community is ready to protect the public,” the letter said, while noting the announcement “may provoke a significant reaction.”
Willis said her office will announce the decisions between July 11 and Sept. 1, 2023, which is “during the Fulton County Superior Court’s fourth term of court.”
“As leaders, it is incumbent upon us to prepare,” the letter said.
Willis officially launched the probe in February 2021, sparked in part by the now-infamous Jan. 2, 2021, phone call then-President Donald Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump pleaded with Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes,” the exact number Trump needed to win Georgia.
Trump, who has denounced the probe, has repeatedly defended his phone call to Raffensperger, calling it “perfect.”
In January, the special grand jury seated in the probe, as part of its final report, announced that it had found “by a unanimous vote that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning that election.”
The grand jury also recommended to prosecutors that they seek indictments against witnesses who they believe may have lied during their testimony, according to excerpts of the grand jury’s report released to the public.
“A majority of the grand jury believes that perjury may have been committed by one or more witnesses testifying before it,” the grand jury wrote in the report. “The Grand Jury recommends that the District Attorney seek appropriate indictments for such crimes where the evidence is compelling.”
The publicly released portion of the report revealed no details regarding whether or not the grand jury recommended changes for anyone related to efforts to overturn the election.
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