CNN anchor John Berman criticized the Georgia special grand jury’s recommendations to bring charges against 39 people, including three Republican senators.
The Georgia special grand jury that charged former President Donald Trump and eighteen others defendants also recommended charges against an additional twenty people, including Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and two Republican Georgia senators. Trump and the eighteen defendants face thirteen charges related to allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is overseeing the Aug. 14 indictment against Trump and his associates, did not charge Graham or the other recommended individuals listed in the special grand jury’s report.
Berman said the special grand jury’s 26-page report lacks information on witness testimony, transcripts or any other pieces of evidence to use in an ongoing investigation.
“We’ve got some names of people who were not charged. We have the vote counts of the special grand jury itself. But other than that, I think the legal term is bupkis, I mean, there’s nothing in here in terms of witness testimony, or transcripts or really anything that I see in here that could be instructive for either a prosecution or a defense,” Berman said Friday.
CNN legal analyst Michael Moore agreed with Berman’s assessment, adding that only nine pages include information on the recommended charges. (RELATED: CNN’s Legal Analyst Catches Himself After Saying GA Prosecutor Targeting Trump Circle Is ‘Really Alarming’)
“The report’s about 26 pages long, double-spaced. But only nine pages contain information about recommended charges and that’s usually just a list of names with a vote tallied by their side. So there’s just not a lot of information. The rest of the report is sort of just a recitation of the law and statues that might be implicated by the report, there’s just not a lot of information to go off. So I will tell you frankly, I’m a little relieved by that if I were the prosecutor, because I feel like I’ve got less information out there that might come back on me as trying to influence the jury pool.”
Moore said the little information will lead the defense attorneys to do a thorough investigation into the reasons specific individuals were recommended for charges.
Tim Heaphy, a former lead investigating for the Jan. 6 Committee, said the recommendations are “prejudicial” for the jurors and thus special grand jury proceedings should not be made to the public.
The grand jury’s report also recommended charges against Georgia senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who along with Graham, then then-chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have denied any wrongdoing, CNN reported. Graham spoke with Georgia election officials and then-Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger after the 2020 election related to possibly finding evidence of voter fraud.
Purdue allegedly urged Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to participate in a special session of the state legislature to overturn the election, CNN reported.