Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis takes a picture in her office on January 4, 2022.
Ben Gray | AP
A judge on Monday effectively banned a Georgia prosecutor from investigating Republican Senator Burt Jones – one of 16 “wrong voters” for former President Donald Trump – saying she was disqualified for running a fundraiser for Jones ‘have organized political opponents.
In the same order, Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney also denied a motion by 11 other Trump electors seeking to overturn grand jury subpoenas issued at the behest of District Attorney Fani Willis.
Willis may continue to investigate these individuals — and Trump himself — for possible criminal interference in the 2020 Georgia election.
But McBurney’s order on Jones, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, is an embarrassing loss for Willis, whose investigation is believed to be Trump’s greatest threat of possible criminal liability.
McBurney’s ruling prohibits Willis and her special prosecution team from serving a subpoena against Jones, classifying him as a subject or target of the grand jury investigation, and requesting the grand jury to include recommendations about him in its final report.
Willis’ office may interview witnesses about Jones’ involvement in efforts to cast doubt on the 2020 election results.
But she must not use such evidence to develop a criminal case against him if one is warranted, the judge ruled.
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Instead, that decision will be left to another prosecutor’s office, chosen by the attorney general, McBurney ordered.
“An investigation of this importance, which is attracting the necessary public attention and touching on so many political nerves in our society, must not be marred by legitimate doubts about the district attorney’s motives,” McBurney wrote in his order.
“The district attorney doesn’t have to be apolitical, but her investigation is,” the judge added.
Willis and the Atlanta grand jury are watching efforts by Trump, his attorneys and other allies to get Georgia officials to overturn President Joe Biden’s election victory in that state.
Because President Georgia won, a list of Biden electoral college electors won the right to cast ballots for him on the body that, under the US Constitution, determines the winner of the national presidential election.
After the 2020 election, individuals claiming to be electors for Trump in seven battleground states he lost to Biden submitted certificates to the National Archives, setting the stage for a possible legal battle over which electoral roll would be selected for voting.
And Trump pressured Georgia’s foreign minister in early January 2021 to “find” him enough votes in the popular election to reverse Biden’s victory, which in turn would mean Trump could argue that he was entitled to the delegates of the Electoral College of the have state.
Last week, in a court filing, Willis’ office said prosecutors had notified all 16 wrong voters in Georgia that they were targets of their criminal investigation.
Eleven of the voters filed a motion to vacate subpoenas to solicit their testimony before the special grand jury collecting evidence in the inquest. Jones filed a motion to remove Willis from investigations into him for her support for his opponent in the 2022 midterm elections.
McBurney said in his order Monday that Willis was “within her right as an elected official” to host a June 14 fundraiser for Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor Charlie Bailey, who was running a runoff in the United States primary a week after the event party won.
But “this choice … has consequences,” McBurney wrote.
“She gave the imprimatur of her office to Senator Jones’ opponent. And since then she has publicly (in her pleadings) referred to Senator Jones as the ‘target’ of the grand jury’s investigation,” the judge wrote.
“This scenario creates a clear – and actual and untenable – conflict.
