Buckle your seatbelts, folks — it’s going to be a bumpy ride through Fulton County, Georgia. The grand jury report into potential fraud and interference in the 2020 election by Donald Trump and his allies remains mostly sealed. However, the forewoman of the grand jury revealed in an interview today that they recommended criminal charges against several figures — and in fact the list was not “short”.

Does that include Trump himself? Emily Kohrs remained coy on that point, but …

A special grand jury that investigated election interference by former President Donald J. Trump and his allies in Georgia recommended indictments of multiple people on a range of charges in its report, most of which remains sealed, the forewoman of the jury said in an interview today.

“It is not a short list,” the forewoman, Emily Kohrs, said, adding that the jury had appended eight pages of legal code “that we cited at various points in the report.” …

Asked whether the jurors had recommended indicting Mr. Trump, Ms. Kohrs gave a cryptic answer: “You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science,” adding “you won’t be too surprised.”

Kohrs spoke with the Associated Press, which notes that she didn’t go beyond the judge’s restrictions in discussing the deliberations. Oddly, the pull quotes published by the Times don’t appear in the AP’s own report on this interview, at least not the version the NYT linked. That doesn’t mean that a fuller version will have those quotes; the NYT is an AP partner, after all, and may have much more data on this story than the AP has out at the moment themselves. It’s still a little curious.

While Kohrs didn’t violate the judge’s order, she certainly edged up to the line in describing some of their interactions with the witnesses:

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was on the receiving end of Trump’s pressure campaign, was “a really geeky kind of funny,” she said. State House Speaker David Ralston, who died in November, was hilarious and had the room in stitches. And Gov. Brian Kemp, who succeeded in delaying his appearance until after his reelection in November, seemed unhappy to be there. …

After Graham tried so hard to avoid testifying — taking his fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court — Kohrs was surprised when he politely answered questions and even joked with jurors.

Former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani was funny and invoked privilege to avoid answering many questions but “genuinely seemed to consider” whether it was merited before declining to answer, she said.

The small portions of the report that had already been released indicated that the grand jury had recommended several indictments for perjury. Kohrs indicated that even more recommendations for prosecution will emerge shortly, even while trying to speak “delicately”:

“I will tell you that if the judge releases the recommendations, it is not going to be some giant plot twist,” she added. “You probably have a fair idea of what may be in there. I’m trying very hard to say that delicately.”

In most other states, grand juries can return indictments. That’s not the case in Georgia, where they can only recommend charges. That puts the onus on Fulton County DA Fani Willis, who pushed for the grand jury investigation. It’s very likely that she will proceed with any such recommendations, assuming she thinks that she can win at trial; otherwise, Willis wouldn’t have started this process in the first place.

Assuming this involves a criminal charge against Trump himself, what does that mean? It technically doesn’t change anything legally, at least not in terms of the election. It makes a campaign a lot more complicated for Trump politically, of course, as this becomes both a distraction for his own team and another reason for Republicans to argue for a fresh start. To some extent these issues already are present in the 2024 campaign, but an indictment will make it both real and instantly acute all over again.

On the flip side of that argument, however, is the question of whether Democrats are using lawfare to influence elections. That’s not a hypothetical either; Democrats tried to kneecap Rick Perry’s presidential bid with a politically manufactured criminal indictment over a veto he cast on legislation, which got laughed out of court eventually. Trump would certainly love to cast any such charges as similarly corrupt; the grand jury report would likely have some impact on that messaging, if and when any charges get filed.

Essentially, these shoes have been hanging over the race for months. Get ready for a lot of thumping as they all come down in Fulton County, and watch New York for the potential of a couple of more long-shot shoes, too.

Update: I knew better than this, but I erroneously argued that a felony conviction would DQ Trump from the election. That’s not true. The only restrictions for candidacy are those in the Constitution, and it says nothing about felonies or convictions. Thanks to Snidely Whiplash in the comments for reminding me of that. Click here as well for an explanation.