As in Florida and many other States, for cases that are not capital offenses, the prosecuting attorney can file charges directly without presenting the matter to a grand jury.
This means that the prosecutor’s office does not need to empanel another grand jury to start filing formal charges based upon this grand jury’s report.
The portion of the Fulton County Grand Jury report released today is scant on specifics, but does reveal several important things about the investigation which was conducted with their assistance.
1. They concluded, “by a unanimous vote that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning that election.”
This arguably puts an end to the claims that fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election. At the very least they did not find evidence of fraud sufficient to overturn the results of the election.
2. The one charge that was mentioned in the portion of the report released today was perjury. This is not a great revelation or one that would be kept secret. Any witness who appears before a grand jury is advised that if they lie during their testimony, they can be charged with perjury. Based on the testimony and documentary evidence that they have received and reviewed, this grand jury believes that one or more witnesses lied to them.
The full report contains additional charges that could be filed, but presumably, the rest of the report was kept confidential to allow the prosecution to formulate, based on the grand jury’s recommendations, who will be charged and with which crimes. It is an ongoing process and one that both the Court and prosecutors do not wish to be made public today as they assemble these potential charges and start figuring out who might be arrested and when that will take place. In addition, there are most likely ongoing discussions with the lawyers for people who might be charged as to how to potentially resolve the charges and if an arrest will be made, when and where that will take place.
"We find by a unanimous vote that no widespread fraud took place in the Georgia 2020 presidential election that could result in overturning that election." "A majority of the Grand Jury believes that perjury may have been committed by one or more witnesses testifying before it. The Grand Jury recommends that the District Attorney seek appropriate indictments for such crimes where the evidence is compelling."