Georgia
Special grand jury ends probe of Trump, 2020 election
ATLANTA (AP) — The special grand jury in Atlanta that has been investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies committed any crimes while trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia has finished its work, bringing the case closer to possible criminal charges against Trump and others.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who was overseeing the panel, issued a two-page order Monday dissolving the special grand jury. The lengthy investigation has been one of several around the country that threaten legal peril for Trump as he mounts a third bid for the White House.
The decision whether to seek an indictment from a regular grand jury will be up to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Willis spokesperson Jeff DiSantis said the office had no comment on the completion of the panel’s work.
McBurney wrote in his order that the special grand jury recommended that its report be made public. He scheduled a hearing for Jan. 24 to determine whether all or part of the report should be released and said the district attorney’s office and news outlets would be given an opportunity to make arguments at that hearing.
Since June, the special grand jury has heard testimony from dozens of witnesses, including numerous close Trump associates such as the former New York mayor and Trump attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Assorted high-ranking Georgia officials have also testified, among them Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Last month, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection asserted in its final report that Trump criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol. The report concluded an extraordinary 18-month investigation into the former president and the violent attack.
Special grand juries in Georgia cannot issue indictments but instead can issue a final report recommending actions to be taken.
Willis opened the investigation in early 2021, shortly after a recording surfaced of a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call between Trump and Raffensperger. During that call, the president suggested the state’s top elections official could “find” the votes needed to overturn his loss in the state.
“I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump had said. “Because we won the state.”
Since then it has become clear that Willis has been focusing on several different areas: phone calls made to Georgia officials by Trump and his allies; false statements made by Trump associates before Georgia legislative committees; a panel of 16 Republicans who signed a certificate falsely stating that Trump had won the state and that they were the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors; the abrupt resignation of the U.S. attorney in Atlanta in January 2021; alleged attempts to pressure a Fulton County election worker; and breaches of election equipment in a rural south Georgia county.
Lawyers for Giuliani said in August that prosecutors told them he could possibly face criminal charges in the case. The 16 Republican fake electors have also been told they are targets of the investigation, according to public court filings. It is possible that others have also been notified they are targets of the investigation.
Trump and his allies have consistently denied any wrongdoing, with the former president repeatedly describing his call with Raffensperger as “perfect” and dismissing Willis’ investigation as a “strictly political Witch Hunt!”
Willis took the unusual step in January 2022 of requesting that a special grand jury be seated to aid the investigation. She noted that a special grand jury would have subpoena power which would help compel testimony from witnesses who were otherwise unwilling to participate in the investigation.
In a letter asking the court to impanel the special grand jury, Willis wrote that her office had received information indicating a “reasonable probability” that Georgia’s 2020 election, including the presidential race, “was subject to possible criminal disruptions.” Her request was granted and the special grand jury was seated in May.
Massachusetts
Ex-Southern Cal official gets 6 months in college bribe case
BOSTON (AP) — A former University of Southern California athletics department official who accepted bribes from the ringleader of a nationwide college admissions scandal to help get often unqualified students into the school as sports recruits was sentenced Friday to six months in prison.
Donna Heinel was also sentenced in U.S. District Court in Boston to two years of probation and was ordered to forfeit the $160,000 she gained from the scheme.
Her sentencing came just two days after ringleader Rick Singer was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison, by far the longest sentence in the so-called Operation Varsity Blues scandal that has led to convictions or guilty pleas from more than 50 people, including Hollywood actors and wealthy businesspeople.
“Our client is relieved to put this nightmare behind her and we are pleased the court recognized our client’s lifetime of good works in imposing a sentence,” Jennifer Lieser, one of Heinel’s attorneys, said in a statement.
The scheme involved bribes, embellished athletic accomplishments and entrance exam cheating to get often unqualified children from wealthy families into some of the nation’s most prestigious universities.
Heinel, Southern California’s former senior associate athletic director, pleaded guilty in November 2021 to a charge of honest services wire fraud.
“Heinel abused her position as the liaison between USC’s athletic coaches and the subcommittee on athletic admissions by misleading the committee into approving the admission of approximately two dozen Singer applicants as purported athletic recruits when, in reality, the coaches had not recruited them and some did not even play the sport they were purportedly being recruited to play,” the prosecution wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
When the university started to catch on and surprised high school counselors raised red flags, she lied to cover her tracks, and continued the scheme, prosecutors said.
“She remains reluctant to accept responsibility for her actions,” prosecutors wrote.
Defense lawyers asked that she be spared prison time.
“Her conduct, for which she takes full responsibility, is not representative of who she was or is today,” they wrote to the court. “An outwardly strong and powerful woman with a fragile and insecure inner being, Dr. Heinel’s fall from grace is the product of her own decision-making. But it is also the product of the pressures put upon her by a dysfunctional university school system at USC, and the powerful men who inhabited her orbit.”
