The purported names and addresses of the grand jury members who indicted Donald Trump and 18 of his co-defendants on charges of attempting to overturn the result of the 2020 Georgia election this week were posted on a fringe website that often features violent rhetoric, according to NBC News.
NBC News said it chose not to name the website that features the addresses of the grand jury members to prevent further dissemination of the information.
The Fulton County District Attorney’s office declined to comment on this. District Attorney Fani Willis faced racist threats before the indictment was returned and additional security measures were put in place for it and some employees were allowed to work from home.
Under Georgia state law, the identities of the jurors are not secret. In fact, Fulton County juror names are listed on page 9 of the 98-page indictment released Monday night criminally indicting former President Donald Trump and 18 others, according to The Washington Post, which clarified that only names and no other personal information appear in the indictment.
The law, whose objective is to provide transparency to criminal proceedings, does not provide judges with options to protect the privacy of jurors, experts said, even in a high-profile case like Trump’s impeachment that could expose them to intense scrutiny or even threats.
“It’s a matter of public record,” Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Georgia Council of Prosecutors, which provides training for prosecutors in the state, told The Washington Post. “Georgia has always been proud of the fact that the judicial system is a very open process here. I have not found a case, that does not mean that it does not exist, that allows us to keep the names of the grand juries secret.
A Fulton County Sheriff’s spokeswoman declined to comment on the safety of the grand jury with multiple outlets.
Grand jury members have been attacked in the days since Trump’s indictmentthe fourth criminal accusation filed against the former president.
“These jurors have signed their death warrant by falsely accusing President Trump,” read a post on a pro-Trump forum in response to a post that included the names of the jurors, which was seen by NBC News.
Keep reading:
– Trump announces that he will present a report that will exonerate him of the accusations made against him in Georgia
– Prosecutor proposes that the trial against Trump for trying to change the elections in Georgia begins in March
– More than half of Americans would stop supporting Donald Trump if he is impeached, survey reveals
Source: La Opinion
