Urged criminal charges

Georgia panel urged criminal charges against Lindsey Graham and other Trump allies

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler were also among those who were recommended for indictments.

By KYLE CHENEY and JOSH GERSTEIN

A special grand jury convened by Georgia prosecutors recommended criminal indictments of Sen. Lindsey Graham and a slew of other allies of Donald Trump who have not been charged by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, according to a report unsealed Friday.

The special grand jury, which led a year-long investigation of efforts to subvert the 2020 election in Georgia, helped Willis compile a massive trove of evidence that she used to secure a sprawling indictment last month against Trump and 18 alleged co-conspirators, including Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman and others.

But the special grand jury report, which was filed in December but had been largely kept confidential until Friday, shows that a majority of the panel urged her to indict a much wider array of figures linked to the effort.

Graham said Friday that he did nothing wrong, telling local reporters in South Carolina that “to suggest I’m part of some grand scheme to overturn the election makes no sense given my actions.” He noted that he voted on Jan. 6, 2021, to certify Joe Biden’s victory over Trump.

The special grand jury, a quirk of Georgia law, had no power to issue indictments but was required to make recommendations to Willis, who then pursued charges through a traditional grand jury. Trump and the other 18 defendants who were indicted on Aug. 14 were all on the list identified by the special grand jury.

The newly released report indicates there was some dissent among the 23 special grand jurors and three alternates assigned to hear evidence related to the election probe.

The panel divided its probe into seven categories of alleged crimes and took separate votes on which Trump-world figures should be charged within each. The categories included: Trump’s Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which he urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to overcome Biden’s margin of victory in the state; separate efforts to pressure Georgia officials; false statements in connection with Georgia state legislative hearings; harassment of Georgia election workers; the gathering of a false slate of GOP electors; a breach of election equipment in Coffee County, Ga.; and the national bid to subvert the 2020 election.

Seven jurors dissented from the recommendation to indict Graham, and six opposed indicting Loeffler. A large majority of the jurors favored bringing fraud charges against most of the GOP activists who posed as false electors, but the panel split evenly on whether many of those same would-be electors should be accused of joining a racketeering conspiracy. The panel, however, did not recommend any charges against three GOP activists who joined the false elector slate.

No more than 21 jurors joined in any of the dozens of recommendations to indict.

The panel took eight separate votes recommending that Trump be indicted in connection with various alleged crimes. In each of those votes, one juror recommended against a Trump indictment, and a few of the votes also drew between one and three abstentions.

It’s unclear if Willis will still seek indictments against some of the figures who have not yet been charged. She has called for a trial of Trump and his 18 codefendants on March 4, but the trial schedule remains in flux.

After the 2020 election, Graham pressed Georgia officials on vote-counting procedures while they were in the middle of an ongoing recount. He resisted testifying to the special grand jury — claiming he was immune from compelled testimony because of constitutional protections for members of Congress — and took his fight to the Supreme Court. But the justices opted not to take up the matter and Graham ultimately appeared before the panel, with limits on the subjects they were permitted to grill him about.

The special grand jury recommended charges against Graham, Perdue and Loeffler, among dozens of others, for their role in a “national effort to overturn the 2020 election.” It’s unclear precisely what facts the panel based its recommendations on, and the document doesn’t elaborate on the rationale behind any of its findings.

“I did my job,” Graham told the reporters in South Carolina on Friday. “The day that that becomes criminalized is very bad for the country.”

Graham emphasized the case is “over for me,” but he warned that political disagreements are leading to criminal prosecutions.

As he defended himself, Graham appeared to draw some distinctions between his actions in the weeks after the 2020 election and Trump’s recorded statements to Georgia officials.

”I never suggested anybody set aside the election,” the senator said. “I never said, ‘Go find votes.’”

However, Graham said the report’s claims and the charges against Trump and his allies won’t lead him to back away from supporting the former president in the 2024 presidential race.

“I am standing with President Trump,” Graham said. “We’ll see what happens in the courts but we’ll also see what happens at the ballot box.”

An attorney for Flynn, Jesse Binnall, dismissed the grand jury report as a political hit job.

“Today’s report reveals even more corruption by a politically-motivated prosecutor with one goal: to take down President Trump and his associates, and interfere in the 2024 election,” Binnall said in a statement. “This baseless witch hunt isn’t based on the facts, or the law, or reality.”