ATLANTA — If you drive through downtown Atlanta, near the Fulton County Courthouse, you will likely notice a variety of barricades and closed roads facing you.
Channel 2 Action News was at the courthouse Sunday morning as crews started putting those barricades up ahead of Monday’s convening of a special grand jury.
District Attorney Fani Willis asked jurors to meet and try to determine if former President Donald Trump broke state law when he called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger after the 2020 election and suggested he “find more votes”.
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As a precaution against potential protestors or someone looking to disrupt the proceedings, Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat determined it best to close off Pryor Street, Mitchell Street and Central Avenue around the courthouse beginning on Monday morning.
“We plan accordingly,” Labat said. “As if we were to plan for a Super Bowl or the Peachtree Road Race.”
Labat told Channel 2′s Dave Huddleston that anyone venturing near the courthouse should expect security to be extra tight this week. He also said there will be a much larger, more visible presence downtown.
“We have canceled a few off days and we are working longer shifts,” Labat said. “The safety and security of our customers is first and foremost, so we are prepared.”
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On Friday, Channel 2′s Richard Elliot spoke to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis about what will happen while the special grand jury is in session.
“A special purpose grand jury has one purpose and that is to investigate,” Willis said.
Their mission is to look further into the phone call between Trump and Raffensperger, which was released publicly and raised a multitude of questions.
“If we should find that there was criminal interference into the election,” Willis said. “Then we are hopeful that the the grand jury will see it appropriate to recommend indictment”.
Channel 2 Action News will be following this story all week long. We will have LIVE reports all week long on Channel 2 Action News.
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