The special grand jury report that led to the indictment of former President Donald Trump and 18 others in Fulton County, Georgia, was released on Friday.
The report revealed that the panel previously recommended charges against several other people, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and former Georgia Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, among other names such as Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and former Oklahoma state Rep. Cleta Mitchell.
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Graham held a press conference in Westminster, South Carolina, shortly after the report was released, saying he hadn’t read the report but that he was “surprised” he was considered for indictment by the special grand jury.
“I was totally surprised … because I thought I made it pretty clear that my phone call was to find out what I should be doing as a senator. I never suggested anybody set aside the election. I never said, ‘Go find votes.’ I never said anything other than trying to find how the mail-in ballot system worked,” Graham said on Friday.
When asked what members of the special grand jury asked him when he was called to testify in November last year, he said he was questioned about a phone call he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger after the 2020 election and whether he believed the election was stolen. When asked if he believed the election was stolen at the time of the call, he said, “I didn’t know … the state of play of the fraud allegations” at the time.
Graham also said he believes Trump will likely be the nominee for the 2024 election against President Joe Biden and vowed to support him if he receives the nomination. He previously fought the subpoena by the special grand jury all the way to the Supreme Court, a request that was rejected on Nov. 1, 2022.
Flynn released a statement following the release of the report, saying, “Sadly, this is the threat we face and what’s at stake in 2024.”
“Today’s report reveals even more corruption by a politically-motivated prosecutor with one goal: to take down President Trump and his associates, and interfere in the 2024 election,” Flynn said.
Loeffler, one of two former Georgia senators who lost her reelection bid after a runoff vote in early 2021, responded to the report on Friday, saying, “Trying to jail your party’s leading political opponent ahead of 2024 is election interference.”
Trump posted to his Truth Social platform on Friday, blasting the report as having “ZERO credibility” while criticizing District Attorney Fani Willis, who brought the indictment against him last month.
“It totally undermines the credibility of the findings, and badly hurts the Great State of Georgia, whose wonderful and patriotic people are not happy with this charade of an out of control ‘prosecutor’ doing the work of, and for, the DOJ. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!” Trump wrote.
Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who presided over the special grand jury, previously said he would release the full report by Sept. 8. Trump had attempted to bar him from sharing the report.
The unindicted names revealed on Friday showcase how the vast racketeering indictment once had an even broader scope.
The 26-member special grand jury, which is separate from the grand jury that indicted Trump and his associates last month, spent around seven months hearing from more than 75 witnesses as part of the investigation.
Some of Trump’s closest allies, including Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, testified before the special grand jury before they were indicted alongside Trump last month on racketeering charges that they conspired to overturn the election in the Peach State.
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When the report had a partial release in February, the foreperson of the grand jury spoke to media outlets and said it may include a few surprises. McBurney was asked about the foreperson’s brief media tour and responded that grand jurors are to “keep secret” their deliberations.
Read the full report here:
