When a report revealed a special grand jury in Georgia recommended charges for twice as many people than the 19 ultimately indicted for efforts to overturn the 2020 election, PBS NewsHour’s Amna Nawaz turned to Knowles Gallant Timmons Partner Chris Timmons for insight and analysis. In a live interview, Timmons began with a discussion on the removal issue in former White House Chief-of-Staff Mark Meadows’ case. He said, “What’s important [here] is whether Mr. Meadows was under color of his office.” However, Timmons explained that the judge found Meadows was acting as a member of the campaign outside of his role as chief-of-staff.
Timmons also explained the two types of grand juries in Georgia. One is called a special grand purpose jury and the other one is called the grand jury. He noted, “A special purpose grand jury can be impaneled by the superior court judges of any county when they decide that there’s an investigation that needs to happen that’s going to last longer than the term of court. […] Here, knowing that there was going to be a wide-ranging investigation, massive in scope, they realized the investigation wasn’t going to be able to happen in the two months that’s typically allotted to a grand jury. So, they constitute a special purpose grand jury that operated for a year.”
But why not indict all those the special grand jury recommended face charges?
“So, there’s a couple reasons,” Timmons told viewers. “I think you’re going to find that, with regard to some of the individuals listed in the special purpose grand jury’s report, is that they have cut deals with the state. In other words, they have flipped them. And as part of being flipped, they were offered immunity.”
Timmons also shared his experience in a cocaine RICO conspiracy with 45 defendants that it is not uncommon to narrow the scope of an indictment when dealing with a massive criminal scheme. “And so the defendants that were left out of the indictment, out of the RICO indictment, may be charged in different indictments down the road.”
To watch the full interview on PBS NewsHour, please click here.
