A Georgia state judge on Tuesday weighed whether, when, and how much of a grand jury report into President Trump’s attempt to subvert the 2020 election result should be released.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney appeared to lean towards releasing at least some of the report, compiled by a special grand jury empaneled in January 2022 to investigate the election subversion efforts.
Tuesday’s hearing was heavy on arguments about procedure and state-level grand jury secrecy, and light on details about the report itself.
At one point, McBurney suggested that grand jurors followed many of the same investigative steps as those taken by the January 6 Committee, meaning that the content may be similar to what the House committee released last year.
Fani Willis, the Fulton County DA investigating Trump, said at the outset of the hearing that she opposed the report’s release.
“It is not appropriate at this time to have the report be released,” Willis said.
McBurney seemed skeptical of that argument, at one point asking, “what would prevent a special purpose grand juror from reaching out to the media and saying, ‘I’ll tell you what’s in the report?'”
The judge said that he would not issue a ruling immediately, and might ask for further briefing before making a decision. The report could be released in segments, with redactions, or pending indictments that Willis described as “imminent,” depending on his decision.
