Georgia grand jury forewoman Emily Kohrs' decision to go on TV and discuss certain aspects of the special grand jury investigating election misconduct in the state has triggered outrage from legal experts, many of whom have argued it could undermine any indictments that investigation ultimately produces.
And according to CBS News' Robert Costa, lawyers representing some Trump allies involved in the probe are planning to use that interview as a basis of challenging any indictments their clients may face.
But not so fast, argues former federal prosecutor Shan Wu in an article for The Daily Beast. Kohrs' interview is a potential headache for Georgia prosecutors — but it probably won't doom upcoming indictments.
"To start with, Kohrs was the foreperson of a special grand jury that will produce only a report and recommendations. The special grand jury cannot issue indictments because the Georgia case precedent set by the Georgia Court of Appeals in Kennerly v. Georgia does not allow special grand juries to indict," wrote Wu. "This offers insulation from any eventual charging decision, because if Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis wants to charge, she must present evidence to a different non-special grand jury that is empowered to indict."
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Furthermore, Wu argued, "by the time Kohrs granted interviews, the special grand jury had not only made its report and recommendations, it had also been dissolved," meaning that it can't possibly have influenced the conclusions of the group. And furthermore, Kohrs didn't actually reveal any secret grand jury material in the interviews, like the names of people who were recommended for indictment; she only discussed things like how she felt throughout the process.
Nonetheless, Wu concluded, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis must be hoping that she doesn't continue her media circuit.
"As Andy Warhol famously remarked, 'in the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes,' and in this age of viral media speed, Kohrs is certainly enjoying her moment," concluded Wu. "Whether her 15 minutes have any substantive legal effect on Trump and his allies’ criminal culpability seems doubtful, but there is little doubt that Fani Willis and others are hoping that Kohrs’ time as a celebrity is almost up."
