Special purpose grand jury seated to investigate Trump phone call to secretary of state

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ATLANTA — Former President Donald Trump could be among a list of people getting a subpoena from a special purpose grand jury empaneled in Fulton County on Monday.

The special purpose grand jury won’t start work until June and will look into Trump’s now-infamous phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asking him to find votes in the 2020 election.

“So look, all I want to do is just, I want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state,” Trump said at the time during the call with Raffensperger.

During Monday’s hearing, Judge Robert McBurney explained exactly what would be expected of the 26 people who were chosen.

“You will be investigating, if selected, whether there were unlawful attempts to disrupt the election,” McBurney said. “You’ll be deciding did something happen, and if so, in your opinion, was it unlawful such as you might recommend to the district attorney that she pursue criminal charges.”

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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis told Channel 2′s Richard Elliot exclusively on Friday that she asked for this grand jury after she said too many potential witnesses declined to cooperate with her own 15-month long investigation.

Now the grand jury can grant Willis the legal authority to issue subpoenas to compel those people to talk and produce evidence like documents and recordings.

“If we should find that there was criminal interference into the election, then we are hopeful that the grand jury will see it appropriate to recommend indictment,” Willis said.

It’s fair to assume Georgia’s Secretary of State will get a subpoena; other politicians potentially involved could get one and Trump could potentially get one, too.

Elliot attempted to reach Trump’s organization for a comment on Monday, but he never got a response.

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