Grand jury investigating 2020 election interference meets after four-week break
A Homeland Security canine unit sweeps one of the entrances to the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse in Washington
By Casey Gannon and Holmes Lybrand, CNN
Washington (CNN) — The grand jury that handed up the indictment against former President Donald Trump stemming from efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election is meeting Thursday at the federal courthouse in Washington, DC, after an over four-week hiatus.
CNN saw the jurors working for special counsel Jack Smith at the courthouse Thursday morning. The grand jury was last seen meeting at the courthouse on August 8, a week after the indictment was handed up against Trump. Smith said after the charges were announced that the investigation would continue, and the latest grand jury meeting is an indication it’s ongoing.
The grand jury has been hearing evidence from Smith’s probe into 2020 election interference for almost a year. The indictment includes six unnamed co-conspirators who could still face charges.
In a hearing last week, DC District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected both of the vastly different trial dates proposed by prosecutors and the defense. She set the date for Trump’s election subversion case for March 4, 2024, one day before Super Tuesday.
CNN reported earlier this week that Smith’s investigation has recently focused on how money raised off baseless claims of voter fraud was used to fund attempts to breach voting equipment in several states won by Joe Biden, as well as the role of former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell.
Powell’s non-profit, Defending the Republic, hired forensics firms that ultimately accessed voting equipment in four swing states won by Biden: Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona, according to multiple sources familiar with the ongoing investigation. Powell faces criminal charges in Georgia after she was indicted last month by Atlanta-area District Attorney Fani Willis.
The new details about the investigation indicate federal prosecutors are scrutinizing a series of voting breaches following the 2020 election that state investigators have been probing for more than a year. Smith’s grand jury in Washington, DC, is set to expire on September 15 but it can be extended.
Meanwhile, Smith said in a court filing Tuesday that Trump has made “daily extrajudicial statements that threaten to prejudice the jury” in the 2020 election subversion case.
The allegation arose in a court fight that remains largely under seal. Smith’s office has been sparring with Trump’s team over how much of the underlying sealed dispute should be made public.
This story has been updated with additional background information.
The-CNN-Wire
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CNN’s Zachary Cohen and Paula Reid contributed to this report.
