In Georgia, grand jurors’ names are public — even in Trump indictment by Beth Reinhard and Jacqueline Alemany The Washington post August 15, 2023 at 6:15 p.m. EDT
One month ago, 23 grand jurors and three alternates took an oath to keep secret their deliberations, as they began reviewing evidence and testimony about the alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.
But under state law, the identities of the jurors are not secret. In fact, the names of the Fulton County jurors are listed on Page 9 of the 98-page indictment released late Monday that criminally charges former president Donald Trump and 18 others.
The law, which is aimed at bringing transparency to criminal proceedings, doesn’t give judges options to protect the privacy of jurors, experts said — even in a high-profile case like Trump’s indictment that could expose them to intense scrutiny or even threats.
“It’s a matter of public record,” said Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, which provides training to prosecutors in the state. “Georgia has always been proud of the fact that the court system is a very open process here. I have not found a case — that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist — that allows us to keep grand jurors’ names secret.”
Concerns about the Atlanta-area jurors’ safety surfaced immediately Tuesday morning when the photos of at least two jurors were posted on Twitter by an anonymous account. Names of jurors popped up in pro-Trump extremist forums as supporters weighed the benefits of digging into jurors’ lives against the risks that it would backfire and make themselves “unwitting pawns.”
One post read: “It’s time we do the doxing,” invoking a practice that typically refers to exposing someone to harassment by publishing their personal information online. Another agreed, writing that “People need to be outside these peoples houses.”
Others in the forum sharply disagreed, warning Trump supporters not to be sucked into a potential “false flag” operation because the media would surely pounce on any threats to jurors. “Seriously,” one user wrote. “Imagine if something were to happen to a person on that list by ‘a crazy maga.’”
Several of the jurors disabled their profiles on LinkedIn and Facebook. Others turned off their phones, sending callers straight to voice mail. One juror answered a call from The Washington Post and said “No comment” before hanging up. A son of one juror reached by The Post said he would pass along the request to speak with his father, but he added it was unlikely that the man would engage with news media because of security concerns.
A spokeswoman for the Fulton County sheriff declined to comment on security for the grand jury.
Skandalakis said that in his three decades of experience as a prosecutor, grand jurors in Georgia rarely give interviews after bringing charges. However, the foreperson of a Fulton County special purpose grand jury, which investigated alleged interference in the state’s 2020 election and issued a final report that remains mostly sealed, did speak publicly earlier this year.
“They typically issue the indictments and go about their business,” Skandalakis said. “I’ve indicted gang cases in which people are concerned for their safety, and I think that’s probably what happened here.”
Every state has its own set of rules regarding the format of indictments and whether those serving on grand juries are listed by name. The names of federal grand jurors are generally concealed; sometimes the name of the foreperson is revealed. Proponents of the Georgia code have argued that revealing names bolsters public trust in the integrity of the process. Others are concerned about regular citizens compelled to serve on a high-profile jury being exposed to harassment.
Part of the Fulton County indictment deals with the brutal harassment suffered by two poll workers, Shaye Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, after Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani accused them of fraud. Their emotional testimony at a congressional hearing related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot highlighted how the spread of misinformation can traumatize ordinary people doing the work that keeps democratic institutions functioning.
“Georgia needs to fix this practice yesterday,” said Chuck Rosenberg, a former U.S. attorney and FBI official, referring to making grand jurors’ names public. “I am all for transparency, but not when it puts citizens at risk.”
Holly Bailey and Hannah Allam contributed to this report.
Beth Reinhard has been a reporter at The Washington Post since 2017. She previously worked at The Wall Street Journal, National Journal, The Miami Herald and The Palm Beach Post. Twitter
Jacqueline Alemany is a Congressional Investigations reporter for The Washington Post. Previously, she was the author of The Early 202, The Post's flagship early morning newsletter featuring news critical to the nation’s many power centers. Alemany is also an on-air contributor to NBC News and MSNBC. Twitter
Threats Against Fulton County Grand Jurors Statement by Fulton County Sheriff’s Office 8/17/23
Threats Against Fulton County Grand Jurors
Atlanta, GA -- The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office is aware that personal information of members of the Fulton County Grand Jury is being shared on various platforms. As the lead agency, our investigators are working closely with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies to track down the origin of threats in Fulton County and other jurisdictions.
We take this matter very seriously and are coordinating with our law enforcement partners to respond quickly to any credible threat and to ensure the safety of those individuals who carried out their civic duty. If anyone becomes aware of a threat, please call 911 immediately or contact your local police department.
Grand jurors in Georgia Trump case face threats, racist attacks by Ella Lee and Zach Schonfeld The Hill 08/17/23 12:25 PM ET
Grand jurors who voted to indict former President Trump in Georgia earlier this week are facing threats and a profusion of racist comments online.
The jurors’ names were listed publicly within the indictment, as required under Georgia law. A review of social media platforms and far-right forums found users posting numerous racial slurs and even the jurors’ addresses.
“Everyone on that jury should be hung,” one user wrote on a right-wing online forum.
On a different far-right site, the purported addresses of all 23 grand jurors tapped to serve in Trump’s case were posted in full.
“MAGAs posting the grand jurors addresses online,” a Truth Social user wrote. “I see a swift bullet to the head if, and when, somebody shows up at their homes.”
The existence of the threats was first reported by NBC News.
A spokesperson for the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office said the department is aware of threats against the grand jury members and is working with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to track down their origins.
“We take this matter very seriously and are coordinating with our law enforcement partners to respond quickly to any credible threat and to ensure the safety of those individuals who carried out their civic duty,” Natalie Ammons, communications director for the sheriff’s office, said in a statement.
The threats were not only made on far-right platforms but also surfaced on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
“Awful nice car you have there…hate to see something happen to it,” one user wrote on X early Wednesday morning, referencing the grand jury foreperson by name.
Others on X posted grand jurors’ social media profiles and their professional websites.
The grand jurors voted Monday to indict Trump and 18 co-defendants on a combined 41 charges. All 19 defendants are accused of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act — a law that was originally created to combat organized crime.
Prosecutors say the former president and his co-defendants plotted to overturn the state’s 2020 election results in an effort to keep Trump in the White House.
Ever since the grand jurors’ names were made public late Monday night, when the charges were filed, they have been repeatedly attacked online.
On one platform, a user made a post urging others to not post names of the grand jurors, warning it was a set up.
“Maybe something unfortunate NEEDS TO FN HAPPEN,” one user responded.
Another user said “if you do,” make sure to wear Antifa clothing and load the Democratic National Committee on speed-dial.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) and Che Alexander, the Fulton County courts clerk, have also faced an onslaught of violent and racist threats in right-wing forums and on social media.
Trump himself has not posted the names of the grand jurors, but he has repeatedly attacked Willis and the charges in recent days.
The former president has also taken aim at the judges and prosecutors presiding over his other three criminal cases, including special counsel Jack Smith, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) and U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan.
A Texas woman was charged with threatening Chutkan, who is overseeing Trump’s federal case stemming from his efforts to remain in power, in a voicemail just after Trump’s indictment. The charge was first reported by Bloomberg.
Texas woman charged with threatening to kill judge in Trump case, Texas Democrat by Lauren Sforza The Hill 08/17/23 7:48 AM ET
A Texas woman has been charged with threatening to kill the judge overseeing former President Trump’s 2020 election case, and a House Democrat who is running for Houston mayor.
Abigail Jo Shry called Judge Tanya Chutkan’s chambers at the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 5, just days after Trump was indicted on charges stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. After investigators traced her call, she later admitted to making the threatening phone call.
Court documents show that she called Chutkan a racial slur before threatening to kill anyone who comes after Trump, all Democrats in Washington, D.C., — including Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a 15-term Democrat who announced in March that she would run for the local election in Houston — and members of the LGBTQ community. She told Chutkan, “You are in our sights, we want to kill you,” according to the documents.
Prosecutors also accuse Shry of saying, “If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you,” the documents said.
When investigators showed up to talk to her at her home in Alvin, Texas, she told them that she made the phone call, but was not planning to travel to D.C. or Houston to carry out her threats. However, she said if Lee comes to Alvin, then the investigators should worry.
A federal judge for the Southern District of Texas ordered her jailed Wednesday, saying that keeping her in custody will “reasonably assure the safety of any other person and the community.”
Trump has publicly attacked Chutkan in the days and weeks since the indictment, where he was charged with four counts related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election. On Friday, the judge entered a protective order that limits what evidence handed over by prosecutors Trump and his legal team can publicly disclose.
The Associated Press contributed.
Jon Lewis, a research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, told The Hill that the potential for online threats to escalate to real-world violence is significant.
“The unfortunate reality is that, as we’ve seen time and time again, when the right-wing media ecosystem focuses on a target, online rhetoric quickly devolves into threats of violence,” Lewis said.
Trump Conduct SPARKS Massive Sheriff Investigation After Indictment by Michael Popok MeidasTouch Aug 18, 2023
Michael Popok of Legal AF reports on the Fulton county sheriff department and judges opening and investigation along with the FBI to bring to justice the Trump followers who have doxxed and viciously attacked the 23 grand jurors who voted to indict Trump, as Trump stands by silently and does nothing.fturner
Transcript
This is Michael Popok, LegalAF.
it's gone from bad to terrible in Georgia. Now the grand jurors have been targeted by Donald Trump and his right far right wing followers, and cult followers, who have now taken to doxing: posting personal information about the grand jurors on social media, including now on Truth social and Getter. It's moved from the QAnon bulletin boards, and message centers, message communities, all the way up now to social media for Donald Trump. And I'm going to talk about how they got that information: unfortunately, it's attached to the indictment. Fani Willis maybe should have asked to have that information redacted, and put into an anonymous format, but under a quirk of Georgia law, you have to actually post the names of the indicting jurors. And actually, if you go to page nine of the Indictment, you're going to see their names. I'll put up a version of it with them blacked out because I don't want to contribute to the doxing of these grand jurors.
But this started, this attack -- and now we have the Fulton County Sheriff making finally an announcement that they are going to be investigating the virulent attacks on the grand jurors that's happening within social media. And you know who's quiet about all this? You know who's not showing any leadership courage, or statesmanship? Donald Trump, or anybody in his campaign.
Where's Stephen Cheung, his spokesperson? Where is somebody calling out that they should not, under any circumstances, go after innocent grand jurors who are just doing their civic duty, and voted to indict Donald Trump, to 23 of them for Fulton County? Let me unpack all of this first.
It all started -- because this is a fast-moving story with a lot of moving parts -- it all starts and ends with Donald Trump. A week or so ago, he posted a mob-like threat, to rub out prosecutors and judges, by saying, "If you come after me, I'm coming after you." That triggered a cascade of events, including in federal court, with Jack Smith bringing that to the attention of Judge Tanya Chutkan in the D.C Circuit Court. Then ,having been successful, I guess, in trying to upset the apple cart there, Donald Trump moved on and said, "You know what? I'm just going to blow a racist bullhorn, and I'm going to start calling people that happen to be black, that are prosecutors and judges, the n-word. There's no other way to put it. Starting yesterday, he started calling them "Riggers," with an "R", over and over and over again, which got picked up and amplified by his followers, not even on the dark web, but on the regular web, on the regular social media, in calling everybody, like let's use it in a sentence, "Fani Willis is a "Rigger." You see where this is going? "Tanya Chutkan is a "fill in the blank"["Nigger"].
And there's no doubt that he was trying to tap into the virulent racist streak that runs through his followers and supporters, and activate them.
And it's not enough that they, like off-kilter children, repeated this. But then they turned it into violent threats.
One of Donald Trump's followers, who wants to see him re-elected in 2024, made a phone call to federal judge Tanya Chutkan's Chambers, in the District of Columbia, and and said that, "If Trump's not elected in 2024, we're coming to kill you. You are a target . You are a stupid slave." I'm repeating the statements that were made by Abigail Jo Shry, from Texas, who's now been picked up by the FBI. It's the fourth time she's made threats against people, and they're usually black and in positions of power.
‘Hey, You Stupid Slave N—er’: Vile Texas Woman Threatens to Kill Black Judge Overseeing Donald Trump’s Election Interference Case In Federal Court by Niko Mann Atlanta Black Star Thu, August 17, 2023 at 7:00 PM MDT· https://news.yahoo.com/hey-stupid-slave ... 00834.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBpOXo-PJyY
Abigail Shry updated her cover photo. Jul 31 Abigail Shry Michael Wygant I'm bat shit crazy now...i thought Obama was the antichrist & i thought covid was funded by Obama...i was silenced & called racist & phobic of whatever & for 2 yrs i went crazy under the guise of trust science..i do not trust science of any lunacy of Democrat govt... I'm firmly planted in the MAGA camp as i hv been since 2015.
A Texas woman has been charged with threatening to kill the federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s election interference case in Washington, D.C.
Abigail Jo Shry, 43, was charged after she left a voicemail threatening to kill U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan.
[x] Abigail Jo Shry (left) is accused of threatening to kill U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan (right). (Photos: Mike Sington/Twitter, WSUA9 News / YouTube screenshot)
According to WUSA9 News, authorities say Shry called Judge Chutkan’s chambers on Aug. 5 and threatened her life. She also called the judge a “slave” and threatened to kill Houston-area Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.
“Hey, you stupid slave N[igg]er,” said Shry before threatening, “all Democrats in Washington D.C. and all people in the LGBTQ community.”
“You are in our sights, we want to kill you,” Shry continued. “If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you, so tread lightly, b[itc]h. You will be targeted personally, publicly, your family, all of it.”
CNN reports that the Alvin, Texas, native was charged with Transmission in Interstate or Foreign Commerce of any Communication Containing a Threat to Injure the Person of Another. Shry was detained by an order from a U.S. magistrate judge on Aug. 16 and will be held until her bond hearing set for Sept. 13.
Shry reportedly admitted to making the call while speaking with special agents from the Department of Homeland Security on Aug. 8. She claimed that she had no plans to carry out the threats. However, she also said, “if Sheila Jackson Lee comes to Alvin, then we need to worry.”
[x]Mike Sington @MikeSington Trump supporter, Abigail Jo Shry of Alvin, Texas, has been arrested for threatening to kill Judge Tanya Chutkan. Anyone surprised this is happening? Last edited 5:25 AM · Aug 17, 2023 from Los Angeles, CA
Trump — who was indicted for inciting the violent Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and posted “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” on Truth Social — was warned by Chutkan to stop making inflammatory posts on social media.
“I caution you and your client to take special care in your public statements about this case,” Chutkan said to Trump and his attorney. “I will take whatever measures are necessary to safeguard the integrity of these proceedings.”
Shry’s call to the judge was one day after Trump’s post on the conservative platform.
Trump attacked the judge on Truth Social on Aug. 13 as well as the following day by calling her “highly partisan” and “very biased and unfair.”
“She obviously wants me behind bars,” he added.
Chutkan was appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia by former President Barack Obama in 2014. She was randomly chosen to oversee Trump’s election interference case.
Shry has reportedly been charged at least four times in the past year for similar threatening behavior and spent 30 days in jail. Shry could serve up to five years in prison for the threats.
Fani Willis has gotten death threats and called the n-word more times than she cares to repeat ever since she started the prosecution and it's only been Amplified since the indictment and now and now not only has um the uh followers of Donald Trump with his implicit approval because he's not doing anything to stop it right just like the four hours he set derelict of Duty in the white house uh Oval Office dining room watching the capital burn he's doing nothing to stop his people from attacking the grand jurors just like he did nothing to stop his people and instead pour gasoline on the fire the kerosene on the fire on Jan 6. it's the same thing we're watching it over again the same person that would tell people to come to Gen 6 and be wild and not tell them to stand down as the West Portico and the and the capital became a bloody battlefield of Carnage it's the same person that's allowing uh the grand jurors innocent civilians doing their civic duty under an American flag in a courthouse for justice who was blind to be attacked he could call off the dogs he could call off his henchmen he could call off his minions and tell him it's inappropriate where's Stephen Chung where's this press spokesperson for Donald Trump who's always out there talking about things that are improper where is he now here and let's unpack what happened so make it clear sorry I got a little hot during the hot take because this one among many it just it's just a chilling example of why this man can never serve in high office ever again he's unfit for office he's fit for prison he's unfit for office where did the names come from unfortunately as I said earlier there's a quirk in Georgia law and they actually post it on the indictment here's a copy of the indictment those are the charges and if you go to page nine of the indictment and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna make the doxing worse you will see the actual names of the 23 Fulton County um Fulton County Grand jurors not their addresses but with those names many of them unique Trump's people were able to then do research go on LinkedIn go on Facebook go on social media find their photos find their what they think is their racial or ethnic background go search uh political contributions to see if they're Bernie Sanders supporters or Obama supporters of black lives matter supporters as if any of that matters and put it up on the web right including their home addresses and that led to us in leads to a series of social media postings and comments in the chat rooms about long-range missiles and long-range rifles being used against them that they signed their death warrant um that they I'm just going to read a few of these things now uh that we're now in the Turner Diaries time which is a racist Trope that's used in order to uh say that race Wars are coming that they are um the n-word that they um they're on a hit list and other things said Within These uh these uh right-wing media platforms it started on Q Anon platforms it's moved on into mainstream with getter and Donald Trump's own truth social and so our hearts on the Midas touch Network go out to each of the grand jurors who did nothing more than swearing allegiance to the constitution in a dude to what was right for justice and hearing the evidence and voting in this case to indict the 19 people including Donald Trump they need protection um and now the sheriff's department has finally gotten around a little bit late in my view has finally gotten around to issuing a statement I'm going to read the statement to you the statement is as follows uh that they are aware that personal information of members of The Fulton County grand jury is being shared on various platforms I'm quoting from a statement as the lead agency our investigators are working closely with local state and federal law enforcement agencies to track down the origin of threats in Fulton County and other jurisdictions we take this matter very seriously and are coordinating with our law enforcement Partners to respond quickly to any credible threat and to ensure the safety of those individuals who carried out their civic duty the FBI declined comment FBI and the Department of Justice is going to have to get on this one because now we're talking about civil rights violations and now we're talking about uh race-based for many of these Grand jurors civil rights violations at a criminal level and that's when the Department of Justice and the FBI have to step in look I'm all in favor of the sheriff's department but uh you know the the organization that I want looking into this is the Federal Bureau of Investigation working with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation all of its lead investigators has to happen now and what is the ramifications of this for Donald Trump right I don't know what he thought he was accomplishing I don't know what he thought he was accomplishing being a coward and not telling these people to step down Stand Down stand back and stand by as he told the proud boys once but all it's going to get him is into further trouble you now have a federal judge judge judkin who's been threatened by one of Trump's followers you've got Grand jurors who have been threatened you have jurors who have been threatened by Donald Trump up in New York in the Manhattan D.A prosecution you've got prosecutors who've been threatened by Trump and all the people around him fawnee Willis using the n-word Leticia James the New York attorney general up in New York calling her peek-a-boo James which is a code word not that artfully disguised for a racial slur Alvin Bragg the Manhattan district attorney is called a degenerate which is also words that were used against uh black people to make them the other and federal judges you know who he's not making comments about Aileen Canon Eileen Cannon down in in Florida as I said a word about her right and so he one of two things either Donald Trump cannot control these people at all he lit the flames and now it's just basically run out of control and he has no control of them which I don't believe or he is making a conscientious choice not to protect innocent civilians in his quest to get back into power and for that the Department of Justice should investigate what Donald Trump has done and see if they can tie him back to any of these crimes the end result is going to be that the actual grand jury that will be selected in all the places that have yet to select the grand jury in Manhattan in um in Florida for the Mar-A-Lago case in the District of Columbia for the Jack Smith Jan 6 case now in Georgia with fawnee Willis's case all of those jurors because of the actions today in the last 72 hours are going to have to be anonymous and protected and the grounds for it have been delivered part and parcel in its entirety by Donald Trump he has now established the grounds for the judge to exercise their discretion under the federal criminal rules to put this jury into protection and have them be anonymous and we have already have a precedent for it because it happened up in New York when when in a civil case not even a criminal case where judge Lewis Kaplan in the E Gene Carroll case said I can't protect this jury in the civil case on the sexual battery and rape of e Gene Carroll and the allegations there and I'm going to put them into an anonymous jury which actually Donald Trump's lawyers did not oppose it was probably the first time in the last 50 years in New York or more and I can't even think of another time that a civil jury not a criminal jury was given the protection of anonymity and protected by the Federal Marshals Marshals coming in and out of the courthouse this is now what's going to have to happen with that precedent and with Donald Trump's actions over the last few days including now the doxing of the grand jury is going to happen to the jury as well and the grand jurors are going to have to be protected our taxpayer dollars our federal resources are now going to have to be used to protect these innocent civilians and we'll watch closely here on the Midas touch Network what is going on what is going on with the sheriff's department and phony Willis has to take this seriously as well I am sure that the presiding judge Scott McAfee who's the youngest judge 34 years old and has only been on the bench for six months is going to have to take this thing seriously as I said on an earlier hot take he's going to have to put his big judge pants on and I'm sorry there's no training academy for what to expect in a case involving Donald Trump as a criminal but he's going to have to get a handle on this quick and the chief judge that's responsible for the grand jury process and the judge that was responsible for the grand jury process judge McBurney are going to have to have a meeting and figure out what's to be done because it's not just the law enforcement investigating the grand jury process itself has been violated right how will you ever get more Grand jurors to come and do their civic duty if they're going to be mercilessly attacked and their address is given out by uh Donald Trump and his followers you'll never get a grand juror so the court system has a role they're a stakeholder in this process and they're going to have to call and and get people in front of them and find out what happened here including talking to the lawyers for all of the 19 including Donald Trump to find out what happened so you're going to have an investigation by the court system by judge McBurney who was responsible for the grand jury by judge McAfee who's presiding over the case and then we'll see what happens with any part of the case going to federal court because some of these people three of them in particular were also Federal officers potentially while all the bad things are happening or at least where a lot of the bad things are happening and they might have an exit to go to Federal Court they don't lose phony Willis they don't lose Georgia state criminal law they don't get a pardon for it at the federal level they'll just try their case across the street at the federal courthouse instead of the state courthouse and there'll be another judge judge Jones who'll have to make a decision but all the judges I assure you all the Judiciary including Eileen Cannon down in Florida is looking carefully at what happened up in Georgia as a template for how to protect their jurors and their grandeurs I am sure there are meetings going on in the federal courthouses around America to talk about Grand jurors in cases related to Donald Trump and jurors related to them we'll report on it just like I'm doing here on hot takes just like this one at the intersection of Law and politics only one place the Midas touch Network YouTube channel it's a free subscribe and then we pull it all together if you like these hot takes we'll do it in a long longer format we pull five or six of these stories at the intersection of Law and politics that we think you need to know with our analysis as practicing attorneys for if you add us add up all the co-anchors we're talking about 75 years of experience in courthouses and courtrooms just like this one it's called Legal AF and it's on the YouTube channel for Midas Touch on Wednesdays and Saturdays you can watch us there or get us on audio podcast platforms every one of them has legal AF you can follow me Michael popock on all things social media at Ms popoc this is my Michael popock until the next hot take for legal AF