Trump is right…the Atlanta grand jury looks like a Kangaroo Court run by a district attorney with a political agenda and a giddy foreperson who behaves like she was just crowned queen of the high school prom.
I watched the foreperson, Emily Kohrs’, bizarre televised interviews –particularly the lengthy NBC News interview– in disbelief and disgust. What the hell? She acted like a vapid and immature teenager who was smiling, gushing, laughing, and joking about a very serious legal proceeding. Batshit crazy noted some on social media. I don’t disagree.
At one point, Kohrs fantasized about how “cool” and “awesome” it would be to swear in Donald Trump as a witness because, as foreperson, she got to do that. It was like winning the lottery. She appeared crestfallen that he wasn’t called. But her consolation prize was administering the oath to the Georgia House Speaker by holding a Ninja Turtle Popsicle she received at an ice cream party held by the D-A.
I know ten-year-olds with more brains and maturity. It was embarrassing for her. She made a mockery of our justice system.
Kohrs clearly wanted her 15 minutes of fame and seemed enamored of her own sudden celebrity. In an interview with the Atlanta Journal Constitution she said, “I told my boyfriend at one point during the proceeding, ‘Do you know that if I was in a room with Donald Trump and Joseph Biden and they knew who I was, they would both want to speak to me!'”
Fulton County prosecutors must be livid to the point of apoplexy. I guarantee they got on the horn and told her to put a sock in her mouth. It’ll have to be a big sock.
She made a mockery of our justice system
Kohrs violated every grand jury rule on secrecy and her oath to maintain confidentiality. But the damage is done. If there are any eventual indictments, the defense would make an immediate motion to dismiss based on grand jury impropriety and bias. She tainted the jury pool, not to mention the evidence.
Kohrs went well beyond the publicly released information, which was a court-approved but heavily redacted introduction and conclusion in the grand jury’s report. She announced there would be a dozen indictments of well-known people and intimated that Trump would likely be among them. She talked at length about certain witnesses. As a consequence, Kohrs could (and should) find herself in legal jeopardy for breaching her sworn duty.
The question of any future charges is still an open question. This was a “special purpose” grand jury. It does not have the authority to issue indictments. To do so, the District Attorney would have to start over from square one and convene a regular grand jury. But given the mess Emily Kohrs has made, Fani Willis, the D-A may now have second thoughts. Or third and fourth thoughts.
I have long been suspicious of this “special purpose” grand jury. Willis spent the better part of 2 years investigating Trump. If she felt that she had compelling evidence of criminality, why not convene a regular grand jury? Unless, of course, the goal all along was to use the panel to issue a report smearing Trump. Instead, Kohrs has managed to smear the D-A.
As for the law, solicitation to commit fraud in an election is an exceedingly difficult case to prove. You have to show that someone directed or pressured a government official to commit a crime that would alter an election. Trump’s two telephone calls to the Georgia Secretary of State don’t show that.
The then-president complained about a rigged election and ballot stuffing. He found it hard to believe that he lost the state by a mere 11,780 votes. He demanded that Brad Raffensperger conduct a recount and/or recalculated the votes that were cast.
Trump had a free speech right to complain. That’s not solicitation to commit election fraud.
