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Media handwringing over Georgia grand juror speaking out ignores one critical fact [1]

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Date: 2023-02-23  

The media, meanwhile, is very concerned that Kohrs has said things she should not have said. Ultimately that’s up to the judge handling the matter, who gave the jurors detailed instructions on that front. The Associated Press, which got one of Kohrs’ first interviews, explained:

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney advised Kohrs and other jurors on what they could and could not share publicly, including in interviews with the news media. During a lengthy recent interview, Kohrs complied with the judge’s instructions not to discuss details related to the jury’s deliberations. She also declined to talk about unpublished portions of the panel’s final report.

As much as she appears to be enjoying herself, Kohrs is visibly being careful about what she says, with the judge’s instructions in mind. However, the rules for Georgia grand jurors are different from the rules for federal grand jurors, a fact some in the media don’t seem to be remembering. After their service, federal grand jurors have a near-total gag order, but Georgia grand jurors are only banned from discussing their deliberations or, in this case, the specific indictment recommendations that name names.

One of Trump’s attorneys has suggested that Kohrs did discuss deliberations when she talked about the multiple indictment recommendations, but it’s a stretch.

Former federal prosecutor and MSNBC contributor Barbara McQuade is leading the charge in expressing horror that Kohrs is talking. She’s “mortified,” she writes. She’s concerned that “A blabbing grand jury threatens to upend the whole enterprise” because “At some point, impropriety by a grand jury could be grounds for a claim of violation of the due process rights of the accused.”

McQuade may be correct that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is not happy about Kohrs talking to the media—Willis didn’t want any of the special grand jury report released, after all. But McQuade appears to be applying federal rules to a Georgia grand jury.

“At bottom, the juror hasn’t in any way violated her obligation to keep the deliberative process secret,” Anthony Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University, told The Washington Post. “And she hasn’t released information in the public domain that already hasn’t been either known or widely speculated. So, the idea that she has, in any way, tainted the case or caused Fani Willis headaches is misguided.”

In this case, the handwringing from the media serves the interests of Trump and and other likely targets of the investigation who want the process to appear tainted as a way to diminish the legal jeopardy—or the public perception of legal jeopardy—they face. If the judge has a problem with what Emily Kohrs is telling reporters, he can presumably reach her and tell her to cut it out.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/23/2154590/-Media-handwringing-over-Georgia-grand-juror-speaking-out-ignores-one-critical-fact

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