The judge overseeing an investigation into former President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election warned prosecutors against releasing the special grand jury’s report just before an election, Law&Crime reports.
“If the work is completed such that it lands on or near the election, it will stay completed and in my office until it gets disclosed after the election,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said.
As Law&Crime points out, McBurney had previously ruled against motions by GOP state Sen. Burt Jones and 11 of the 16 false Trump electors to quash their subpoenas after being designated as “targets.”
The lawyer for the 11 fake electors, Holly Pierson, told the judge that forcing her clients to testify would only result in them being “frog marched in front of the cameras," adding that they would invoke their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.
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“The Supreme Court has made clear that one of the main purposes of the Fifth Amendment is to protect innocent people who can be bound up in ambiguous circumstances,” Pierson said.
McBurney ruled that they cannot avoid asserting those rights, but that the parties should discuss what testimony they can give without incriminating themselves.