The Fulton County grand jury recommended charges against Lindsey Graham in Georgia‘s election case, new court filings showed on Friday.
Jurors also recommended charges against Michael Flynn, who had served as National Security Adviser to Donald Trump, and Georgia’s two former Republican senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.
Also named were Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn and lawyers Lin Wood and Cleta Mitchell, the report showed.
It’s unclear why none of them were charged and what charges they may have faced.
Graham defended himself on Friday, saying as head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he was merely doing his job in investigating alleglations of voter fraud.
The original indictment against Trump and 18 additional co-defendants included details involving 30 ‘unindicted co-conspirators‘ – people who Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis alleges took part in the criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election.
The Georgia grand jury wanted to charge Lindsey Graham in the election case, new court documents show – above Graham with Donald Trump in January 2023
Graham, the Republican senator from Georgia who was a staunch Trump ally, in the weeks after the 2020 election had made calls to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Raffensperger has said he interpreted questions about whether he could reject certain absentee ballots as a suggestion to reject legally cast votes.
Graham has said, as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he was interested in cases of possible voter fraud. He repeated that on Friday.
‘As the then-Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I had to decide whether to hold a hearing regarding the allegations of election misconduct in Georgia and other locations, as well as whether to certify the election results,’ he said in a statement.
‘I had questions, as did many others, about how the mail ballot process worked in Georgia and other locations. I did my due diligence. At the end of the day, I voted to certify the election results from every state including Georgia.
‘It should never be a crime for a federal elected official, particularly the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who will have to vote to certify a presidential election, to question and ensure the integrity of that election.’
Graham also spoke to local news outlets in South Carolina, where he said he was surprised by the grand jury recommendation.
‘We can’t criminalize senators doing their job when they have a constitutional requirement to fulfill. It would be irresponsible for me in my opinion as chairman of the committee not to try to find out what happened,’ he told WYFF News.
‘I called around different states including Georgia,’ he said, noting the questions that came up after the election about voter irregularities.
‘I eventually certifed all states, including Georgia,’ he pointed out. As a senator he had to vote to certify the electoral college results.
‘I was totally surprised,’ he said of the hearing the grand jury recommendations.
Graham fought against testifying before the Georgia grand jury and was ultimately orded to do so by the Supreme Court.
The grand jury spent seven months hearing from some 75 witnesses before finishing a report in December with recommendations for Willis on charges related to attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
The special grand jury did not have the power to issue charges but Willis used the evidence it gathered to seek an indictment from a regular grand jury.
Here is who else the grand jury recommended be charged:
DAVID PERDUE and KELLY LOEFFLER
David Perdue
Kelly Loeffler
Perdue was running for re-election to the Senate in a special election in January 2021.
Trump was campaigning for him but also falsely claiming he won the presidential election and was the victim of election fraud.
Perdue personally urged Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to convene a special session of the legislature to help Trump’s quest to overturn the election.
Loeffler was at that meeting.
She was in a runoff election in January 2021 that she ultimately lost.
Trump also campaigned for her.
The loss of those two seats gave Democrats control of the Senate.
MICHAEL FLYNN
Flynn, like Graham, was compelled to testify before the grand jury.
Michael Flynn
In mid-December 2020, Flynn told a right-wing news channel that Trump ‘could take military capabilities’ and place them in swing states and ‘basically re-run an election in each of those states.’
Flynn also met at the White House on Dec. 18, 2020, with Trump, attorney Sidney Powell and others associated with the Trump campaign for a meeting that ‘focused on topics including invoking martial law, seizing voting machines, and appointing Powell as special counsel to investigate the 2020 election,’ Willis wrote in her document asking Flynn to testify.
And he attended meetings in November 2020 at the South Carolina home of conservative attorney Lin Wood. Wood also testified before the grand jury. He had been seeking ways to influence election results in Georgia.
BORIS EPSHTEYN
Boris Epshteyn
Boris Epshteyn also testified before the grand jury.
He served as a lawyer for Trump and the request for his testimony said that he ‘possesses unique knowledge concerning the logistics, planning, and execution of efforts by the Trump Campaign to submit false certificates of vote to former vice president Michael Pence and others.’
CLETA MITCHELL
Cleta Mitchell
Cleta Mitchell advised Trump on a phone call with Georgia state officials after the 2020 election in which he urged them to find evidence that could overturn the state’s results.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ordered the partial release of the report in February but declined to immediately release the panel’s recommendations on who should or should not be prosecuted. The judge said at the time that he wanted to protect people´s due process rights.
McBurney said in a new order filed Aug. 28 that the due process concerns were moot since a regular grand jury has indicted Trump and 18 other people under the state’s anti-racketeering law. All have pleaded not guilty.
The parts of the report previously released in February included its introduction and conclusion, as well as a section in which the grand jurors expressed concerns that one or more witnesses may have lied under oath and urged prosecutors to seek charges for perjury. The panel´s foreperson had said in news interviews that the special grand jurors had recommended that numerous people be indicted.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis
The newly released court documents on Friday also mention jury concerns about being lied to: ‘A majority of the Grand Jury believes that perjury may have been committed 15 by one or more witnesses testifying before it. The Grand Jury recommends that the 16 District Attorney seek appropriate indictments for such crimes where the evidence is 17 compelling.’