“I think the voting by mail had problems,” he added, “but I found no evidence of widespread fraud.”
The jury, convened by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, was tasked with investigating whether former President Donald Trump and his allies tried to disrupt the lawful administration of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election.
Willis initiated the probe in early 2021 based on a leaked phone call in which then-President Trump suggested Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger could “find” votes to overturn the state’s election results.
“I had to decide, as a senator, whether or not to validate the Georgia election,” Graham said Sunday. “I thought it made sense to call up the Georgia secretary of state, and I did. I asked hard questions, but at the end of the day, I voted to certify the election results in Georgia for their 2020 election.”
However, on the orders of Judge Robert McBurney, the identities of those witnesses are being kept secret “for now.”
“Potential future defendants were not able to present evidence outside the scope of what the District Attorney asked them,” the judge noted in the Feb. 13 order. “They could not call their own witnesses who might rebut what other State’s witnesses had said and they had no ability to present mitigating evidence. Put differently, there was very limited due process in this process for those who might now be named as indictment-worthy in the final report.”
Under Georgia law, special grand juries do not have the authority to issue indictments but may recommend certain actions. In its report, the jury recommended that the district attorney “seek appropriate indictments … where the evidence is compelling.”