Georgia grand jury member says indictments recommended in Trump election probe

'I don't think you will be shocked,' Emily Kohrs tells US media outlets

Former president Donald Trump speaks during the New Hampshire Republican State Committee 2023 annual meeting in January. AP

A member of the Georgia grand jury convened to investigate former US president Donald Trump's possible interference in the 2020 election told news outlets this week that the group had recommended several criminal indictments.

Emily Kohrs, who served as the forewoman on the special grand jury for eight months, did not specify the people named in the decision or the charges in her interviews with CNN and The New York Times.

“There may be some names on that list that you wouldn't expect. But the big name that everyone keeps asking me about — I don't think you will be shocked,” Ms Kohrs told CNN.

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Mr Trump is being investigated over his phone call to Georgia's top election official Brad Raffensperger on January 2, 2021, asking him to “find” 11,779 votes in the pivotal state to bridge the electoral gap between him and Joe Biden.

“I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state,” Mr Trump said, according to audio recordings of the conversation.

Mr Trump has continued to claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him due to electoral fraud, but this has been repeatedly disproved.

A Georgia judge last week ordered the release of some excerpts of the special grand jury's final report, which concluded that some witnesses may have lied under oath and delivered recommendations to prosecutors on possible indictments for election interference, the document showed.

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“It is not a short list,” Ms Kohrs told the Times after the group heard evidence from 75 witnesses.

The special grand jury does not have the power to bring charges, only to make recommendations to prosecutors. It also does not have the authority to issue indictments.

To do that, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis would need to seek a regular grand jury's approval.

The former president has denied wrongdoing and accused Ms Willis, an elected Democrat, of going after him for political reasons.

Ms Kohrs did not say if Mr Trump was included in the recommendations, but told the Times: “You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science.”

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

Updated: February 22, 2023, 7:46 PM