Trump finds unlikely ally in Georgian grand jury forewoman Emily Kohrs
As Joe Biden made some big strides domestically by striding out onto the world stage this week, with significant visits to Ukraine and Poland (albeit with another slip as he jogged up the steps to Air Force One), the Trump Republicans had their own reason to get excited back at home.
As the country awaits the decision of Fulton County District Attorney, Fani Willis, around prosecutions based on the verdict of the grand jury investigating the former president’s interference in Georgia’s elections, the jury’s forewoman went public and gave some high-profile interviews with news outlets.
It would be easy to get excited about what Emily Kohrs had to say but this is one of those instances when a lack of hard news makes even soft news seem worthy of headlines. Of limited interest among these scraggy morsels was the confirmation that Mark Meadows did testify before the grand jury. She also gave some pretty big hints about the outcome of the jury’s deliberations. “You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science,” she said in an interview that’s been all over US networks.
On the one hand, it confirms the suspicions of many who expect former President Trump to be indicted in Georgia. Willis told a judge on Tuesday that decisions on prosecutions “are imminent” but it’s unlikely that Kohrs’ appearance on network news will have altered the timeline. What Kohrs has done, however, is blow a little warm air into the sails of those looking to defend the former president. Simply in terms of the public’s perceptions of the process, these interviews appear to damage the case for the prosecution.
Whils it’s unlikely that Kohrs has done anything wrong in going public, the way she went about it has raised eyebrows, much in the way that Kohrs herself raised her eyebrows, lowered them again, looked wide-eyed one moment, and then fell into an exaggerated frown the next. Kohrs proved herself to be one of those people with an abundance of character. In fact, perhaps too much character. It was hard not to be drawn in but also puzzled by what was going on. It was also difficult to recall another example of such a misguided interview. Her testimony was so expressive it made her appear childlike. She pulled exaggerated faces throughout and employed hesitation to increase the drama of each statement. She was motivated by the excitement of being at the heart of one of the most significant legal processes in modern American history.
What Kohrs has essentially done is give Trump and his team a chance to again reframe the investigation as another partisan witch hunt. “This is not JUSTICE, this is an illegal Kangaroo Court” Trump quickly declared on his social media platform. Truth Social. “ALL I DID IS MAKE TWO PERFECT PHONE CALLS!!!”
The forewoman’s decision to go public will also be used by Trump’s defence in an attempt to delegitimise the DA’s investigation. Robert Costa, of CBS News and one of the better-connected hard news journalists working the beltway, reported that “CBS News has learned that lawyers close to several GOP witnesses in Fulton Co. investigation are preparing to move to quash any possible indictments by DA based on the public statements by the forewoman of the special grand jury, per two people familiar with the discussions.”
Such attempts are unlikely to succeed but that’s hardly the point. This is about kicking dust in the air and confusing the public at a time when Trump’s legal jeopardy seems to be increasing.
It comes as two of his closest confidants have been subpoenaed to appear before another grand jury. Special Prosecutor Jack Smith is overseeing the investigation into Trump’s behaviour around the 6th January insurrection and Wednesday’s news that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have been asked to appear indicate that Jack Smith does not intend to allow politics to get in the way of his work. This is a pragmatic and focused investigation, which perhaps explains why Donald Trump Jr this week called Smith a “lunatic”. The Trump camp seems rattled. While the public’s eyes are on Georgia and the outcome of Fani Willis’ deliberations, Special Prosecutor Smith might be leading the investigation to watch. One can already sense that he is not going to be another Robert Muller.
All that said, the law is the law and politics is politics. This week’s developments are not great for Trump legally. Politically, though, they further lock him into a second bid for the Presidency. Notions that Trump might not run given waning enthusiasm perhaps overlook how much Trump needs the candidacy to give him a degree of protection from prosecution. Trump has never been a traditional campaigner and it should be remembered that much of what he achieved in 2016 he did with a barely functioning campaign. He doesn’t need hundreds of millions in the bank to run a ground game. He leveraged social media and TV appearances and could do the same for 2024. It is certainly possible that should he lose the Republican nomination to Ron DeSantis (and the usual caveat is worth restating: don’t believe the DeSantis hype until we see how he faces up to Trump in televised debates), Trump could still run as an independent.
Trump has spent six years dancing around prosecutions that could have ended his political ambitions. His lawyer, Michael Cohen, went to prison for following Trump’s instructions (a crime from which Trump himself is not yet immune to prosecution). At times he’s started to resemble Inspector Clouseau in a Bavarian beer festival as all his would-be assassins shoot each other leaving him safe. The appearance of Emily Kohrs on TV this week is a reminder of how quickly narratives shift on the words of even the least significant actor and this drama has a long way yet to run.
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