Trump grand juror gives smiling, laughing media tour about possible indictments
Emily Kohrs, the foreperson of the special Fulton County (Ga.) grand jury investigating alleged illegal meddling in the 2020 election, gave gleeful interviews to CNN and MSNBC that left some legal observers scratching their heads.
Attorney Andrew McCarthy said Emily Kohrs, the forewoman of a special grand jury as part of the Georgia criminal probe into former President Trump, may have dealt "a terrible blow" to prosecutors with her unusual media tour this week.
In a pair of appearances on CNN and NBC News, Kohrs appeared to strongly hint that Trump was among those recommended for criminal charges while laughing, joking and making animated facial expressions that seemed to provide answers she knew she shouldn't be offering. McCarthy, a senior fellow at the National Review Institute, believes any "fair-mind lawyer" would object to her behavior.
"This is a terrible thing. She basically flouted the secrecy rules of the grand jury. She flouted the judge's order, and she makes the whole enterprise down there in Georgia look like it's a, you know – Trump called it a kangaroo court," McCarthy said.
"Whether it really is a kangaroo court or not, in that colorful sense, we'll have to see as the proceedings go by. But it's absolutely true that it's a terrible blow for their legal system and for this particular investigation, which has already had problems, because, you know, the [Fulton County] District Attorney [Fani Willis] is an elected Democrat who had a lot to say publicly about Trump even before this investigation opened," he continued. "This doesn’t help them present the impression that they’re running a tight, ethical, professional investigation."
Emily Kohrs, the foreperson on Georgia's special grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump, conducted an unusual media blitz about her experiences this week. (Screenshot/CNN/CNNThisMorning)
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney previously ordered that any recommendations on who should, or should not, be prosecuted would remain secret – for now – to protect their due process rights. The special grand jury did not have the power to issue indictments, and it will ultimately be up to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to decide whether to seek indictments from a regular grand jury.
Kohrs has irked liberal CNN and MSNBC pundits this week with comments made to their own colleagues that may have inadvertently helped Trump’s legal team.
But CNN and NBC News provided Kohrs with the platform, and she drew attention to both networks during the pair of viral on-camera interviews. While legal experts think Kohrs’ media blitz may ultimately benefit the former president, McCarthy feels liberal pundits from CNN and MSNBC can’t be mad at their own networks for putting Kohrs in front of the camera. He said the news side of media organizations must make decisions that will sometimes annoy their colleagues.
"I think no matter what your political predisposition is, a jury forewoman who comes out to talk publicly and a high-profile case is a newsworthy event that they would believe they had to cover," McCarthy told Fox News Digital.
"So, I don't fault the news side for regarding it as a news story and covering it," he continued. "You can quibble with whether or not they skewed the news as they reported it. That's a different issue, but whether it's a news story, I think it is a news story."
Andy McCarthy doesn't think the grand jury forewoman did the prosecution any favors with her recent media blitz.
Shortly after her interview with CNN's Kate Bolduan on Tuesday, her colleagues Anderson Cooper and Elie Honig reacted in astonishment.
"First of all, why this person is talking on TV, I do not understand," Cooper said. "She's clearly enjoying herself. But, I mean, is this responsible? She was the foreperson of this grand jury!"
"This is a horrible idea," said Honig, a CNN legal analyst. "And I guarantee you that prosecutors are wincing, watching her go on this… It’s a prosecutor’s nightmare."
JOY BEHAR FUMES OVER TRUMP GRAND JURY MEMBER TOUR: ‘SHOULDN’T SHE BE KEEPING HER BIG BAZOO SHUT?'
On MSNBC, "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough was heard saying "Oh, God" as co-host Mika Brzezinski offered a recap of all the interviews Kohrs gave, which also included the Associated Press, New York Times and Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
MSNBC columnist and former prosecutor Barbara McQuade wrote Thursday that she was "mortified" about Kohr's "reckless" media tour. MSNBC shared the column on Twitter, tweeting, "Loose lips sink ships — and can surely do the same for investigations. Emily Kohrs' media tour is reckless."
The special grand jury spent about seven months hearing testimony from witnesses, including high-profile Trump allies, such as attorney Rudy Giuliani and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and top Georgia officials like Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp.
Georgia special grand jury foreperson Emily Kohrs laughs while speaking with NBC News about the investigation into allegations of illicit election meddling. (NBC/Screenshot)
TRUMP GRAND JURY FOREPERSON EMILY KOHRS LAUGHS, JOKES THROUGH STRANGE MEDIA TOUR ON CNN, NBC NEWS
While Kohrs has been criticized for joking and giggling during her CNN and NBC News interviews, McCarthy thinks a more serious foreperson would have still inadvertently helped Trump’s legal team with such a media blitz.
"I was a prosecutor for 20 years. What you want as the prosecutor is to convince the public that the investigation has been done by the book, in accordance with the rule of law, and that the tribunal is reliable and also following the law," McCarthy said.
"So, any time you have somebody violating the law in a very blatant way, even if that person were more articulate and seemed to have, you know, both feet on the ground and be a more serious, grounded person than the jury foreman, it would still be very bad for the prosecution and really for the court, and the court’s reputation for integrity," he continued.
"It would be bad to have somebody in such a big case flouting the rules this way. So that's the big problem for them. The fact that she also happens to seem like an oddball is, you know, that's more of a gift for Trump, because the more you watch these clips, the more you kind of roll your eyes about the whole enterprise down there."
Fox News’ Joseph A. Wulfsohn and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.