A judge Monday effectively barred a Georgia prosecutor from investigating one of 16 Republican "fake electors" for former President Donald Trump because she hosted a campaign event for his opponent.
Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney denied a motion by 11 other Trump electors who wanted to quash a grand jury subpoena issued by the district attorney.
It is possible that they will be investigated for possible criminal interference in Georgia's 2020 election.
The prosecutor was embarrassed by the order relating to Jones, who is the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor. The biggest threat to Trump is her investigation.
McBurney said that the special prosecution team couldn't ask the grand jury to include a recommendation about Jones in its final report because they couldn't issue a subpoena to him.
The judge ruled that witnesses can be asked about Jones' involvement in efforts to cast doubt on the results of the 2020 election, but they can't be used to build a case against him.
McBurney said that the decision would be left up a different prosecutor's office.
McBurney wrote that an investigation of this significance, which garners the public attention it necessarily does and touches so many political nerves in our society, cannot be burdened by legitimate doubts about the district attorney's motives.
The judge said that the District Attorney doesn't need to be a political person.
The grand jury in Atlanta is looking at efforts by Trump, his lawyers and other allies to get Georgia officials to overturn the election of Joe Biden.
A slate of Biden electors for the Electoral College won the right to cast their votes for the president because he won Georgia.
After the 2020 election, people who claimed to be electors for Trump in seven battleground states that he lost to Biden submitted certificates to the National Archives, setting the stage for a possible legal dispute.
Trump pressured Georgia's secretary of state to reverse Biden's win in the popular election so that he could argue that he was entitled to the state's electoral college delegates.
According to a court filing last week, the district attorney in Georgia told all the false electors that they were targets of her criminal investigation.
The electors filed a motion to quash subpoenas for their testimony from the grand jury. Jones moved to disqualify her from investigating him because of her support for his opponent.
In his order Monday, McBurney said that he was within his rights as an elected official to host a June 14 fundraiser for the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, Charlie Bailey.
This choice has consequences.
The opponent of Senator Jones has been given the imprimatur of her office. She has publicly labeled Senator Jones a target of the grand jury's investigation.
Conflict is created by this scenario. The decision the District Attorney makes about Senator Jones is always influenced by it.
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