‘A Horrible Idea’: Critics on Both Left and Right Slam Special Grand Jury Foreperson’s Media Tour

A general view shows the stage during a walk-through before a Democratic presidential debate sponsored by CNN and Facebook at Wynn Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nev., on Oct. 13, 2015. Alex Wong/Getty Images

Critics on both the left and the right are slamming a special grand jury foreperson’s media tour in which she discussed an investigation into former-President Donald Trump’s alleged criminal interference in the 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia.

“This was a horrible idea and I guarantee you prosecutors are wincing,” Elie Honig, CNN’s senior legal analyst and former New York assistant United States Attorney, told Anderson Cooper.

“Mark my words,” he said, “Donald Trump’s legal team is going to make a motion if there’s an indictment to dismiss that indictment based on grand jury impropriety.”

Emily Kohrs, the 30-year-old who has served for eight months as a foreperson of the special grand jury, appeared on CNN and MSNBC on Feb. 22 giving interviews that Honig called “a prosecutor’s nightmare.”

Kohrs told CNN amid an array of varied amused facial expressions and laughter that there “are no major plot twists” regarding the list of indictments against Trump and his allies.

On MSNBC, she said, “I wanted to subpoena the former president because I got to swear everybody in, and so I thought it would be really cool to get 60 seconds with President Trump of me looking at him and being like, ‘Do you solemnly swear,’ and me getting to swear him in. I kind of just thought that would be an awesome moment.”

Trump’s attorneys in Georgia, Drew Findling and Jennifer Little, told The Associated Press that even before Kohrs’ media interviews, they had concerns about the grand jury’s proceedings but remained silent, deciding to speak out after the foreperson stepped into the limelight.

“The end product is the reliability of anything that has taken place in there is completely tainted and called into question,” Findling said, adding that he wasn’t attacking Kohrs.

“She’s a product of a circus that cloaked itself as a special purpose grand jury,” he said.

The Special Grand Jury

Fulton County Deputy District Attorney Fani Willis makes closing arguments during a trial in Atlanta, Ga., on Aug. 24, 2016. John Bazemore/AP Photo

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, began her investigation in 2021 after taking office in 2020.

Willis requested a special grand jury to expedite the process, which involved looking into the legality of Trump’s call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, among other alleged violations.

A special grand jury, unlike a regular grand jury, has no term limit and focuses on a single issue, such as a case that involves corruption in government.

Last week, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ordered the release of a part of the grand jury’s report (pdf), revealing that a majority of the 23 on the jury believed that “no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election” and that “perjury may have been committed by one or more witnesses testifying before it.”

Rudy Giuliani, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn were among those who testified before the grand jury.

Kohrs, who said she doesn’t align with either party and didn’t vote in the 2020 election, told The Associated Press that she “was only vaguely aware” of the election controversy during that time.

The Epoch Times contacted Judge Robert McBurney’s office for comment on whether it was appropriate for Kohrs to be speaking publicly about the proceedings.

According to the state grand jury oath, as reported by Breitbart, jurors are to “keep the deliberations of the Grand Jury secret unless called upon to give evidence thereof in some court of law of this state.”

‘Witch Hunt’

Trump himself called the case “ridiculous” on Truth Social, and a “continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt of all time.”

“Now you have an extremely energetic young woman, the (get this!) ‘foreperson’ of the Racist D.A.’s Special Grand Jury, going around and doing a Media Tour revealing, incredibly, the Grand Jury’s inner workings & thoughts,” Trump wrote.

The Daily Mail reported on the content from Kohrs now-deleted social media profiles, which seem to have included a Pinterest page indicating an interest in witchcraft.

Theories circulated on Twitter speculating if there were another agenda behind her appearances.

Some Democrats suggested Kohrs was a pro-Trump plant set up to throw the case.

Conservative Drew Allen of The Drew Allen Show postulated that because the Democrats involved allegedly know the case is another anti-Trump propaganda spectacle, they needed an exit before it came time to make indictments.

“Is this an out for them? Is this a way to them to say, Hey, we want to build this up and make it look like Trump and his people did some really bad things, but because this girl was on TV—well, it’s gonna fall apart,” Allen said.

Allen called Kohrs the Democrat’s “sacrificial lamb” whom he “feels sorry for.”

“This is why I despise the Democratic party,” Allen said. “She just got played. She was just a pawn. People are making fun of her all across the country, including the very Democrats who asked her to come on TV.”

In addition to McBurney’s office, The Epoch Times contacted Trump’s attorneys in Georgia and District Attorney Willis’ office for comment.

Katabella Roberts and The Associated Press contributed to this report.