[World] Georgia grand jury picked for possible charges in Trump election case

A US grand jury that is expected to decide whether to charge former President Donald Trump and his allies over their efforts to overturn the 2020 election has been sworn in in Georgia.

Mr Trump has been under investigation for his 2021 phone call to a Georgia election official, pressing him to find thousands of votes in his favour.

The Republican has denied wrongdoing.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Wallis, a Democrat, launched the investigation in early 2021.

She has previously hinted that any charges would probably be filed in August.

A focal point of the inquiry is a January 2021 call between Mr Trump and Georgia's chief elections officer, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which the then-president suggested local officials could "find" more than 11,000 votes - enough to give him a victory in the Peach State.

In a recording of the call, Mr Raffensperger is heard replying that Georgia's results are correct.

Mr Trump continued to make unsubstantiated claims of widespread electoral fraud in the months after he left the White House.

Currently the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, Mr Trump continues to deny the 2020 presidential election results, and has called the Georgia probe a "political witch hunt", while describing his call with Mr Raffensperger as "perfect".

There has already been a grand jury considering the Georgia case. Over six months last year, the special grand jury interviewed dozens of witnesses, but it did not have the power to charge anyone.

The special grand jury found no widespread election fraud in Georgia, but did recommend multiple charges, known as indictments, for alleged perjury.

Much of the special grand jury's report was hidden from the public in order to protect the rights of "potential future defendants", the judge overseeing the case said.

But a brief unsealed section of the report said "a majority of the grand jury believes that perjury may have been committed by one or more of the witnesses testifying before it".

The unsealed portions do not reveal which witnesses may have lied under oath.

On Tuesday, a new grand jury term begins in Fulton County, which includes most of Atlanta and surrounding suburbs.

Two 26-member panels were selected, one of which is expected to handle the case against Mr Trump and his allies.

To bring criminal charges against the former president, the district attorney, Ms Willis, and her team must present her case to one of the grand juries assembled on Tuesday.

Ms Wallis wrote in a letter to local officials that potential indictments in the case could come between 11 July and 1 September, which coincides with Fulton County's latest two-month term for its grand juries.

Mr Trump is also facing charges in two separate criminal investigations in New York and Florida, which he denies.

He was also ordered to pay millions of dollars to writer E Jean Carroll after being found liable for sexual abuse.

She also has a separate defamation lawsuit against Mr Trump, seeking $10m.

The Department of Justice previously maintained that Mr Trump's 2019 remarks about Ms Carroll were protected because he was president.

But on Tuesday the justice department reversed course, saying the former president could potentially be held liable in the case because the comments were not part of his official duties.

In a letter filed with the judge presiding over the case, the justice department wrote that "Mr Trump was motivated by a 'personal grievance' stemming from events that occurred many years prior to Mr Trump's presidency".