The Atlanta district attorney who investigated efforts by former President Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia was disqualified by a judge Monday from a criminal investigation into one of 16 Republicans involved in a fraud ring by pro-Trump voters.
The ruling, a stunning rebuke of Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis, came after a judge found a conflict of interest barred Willis and her office from investigating state Sen. Bert Jones, one of the fraudulent voters.
The district attorney last month hosted a fundraiser for a Democratic candidate who won his party’s nomination and will now face Jones, whom Willis had named as a target of the grand jury investigation.
“This scenario creates a simple — and actual and untenable — conflict,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his Monday order disqualifying Willis from prosecuting Jones. “Any decision the district attorney makes about Senator Jones in connection with the grand jury investigation is bound to be tainted by it.”
“An investigation of such importance, attracting public attention that inevitably stirs and touches so many political nerves in our society, cannot be burdened by legitimate doubts about the district attorney’s motives,” he wrote.
Monday’s order rejected similar disqualification requests from 11 other fraudulent voters who were subpoenaed by Willis’ office, meaning the Fulton County District Attorney’s investigation of those targets can continue and Jones’ investigation is expected to be turned over to another prosecutor’s office.
Still, the development represents a serious unprovoked mistake by a prosecutor handling one of the nation’s most sensitive and high-profile criminal investigations, posing perhaps the most significant legal threat to Trump as the former president eyes a bid for the White House in 2024
The issue arose after Jones and 11 other Trump-supporting voters filed a lawsuit to disqualify Willis, citing in part her role in hosting and headlining a mid-June fundraiser for Democratic candidate Charlie Bailey , who is running against Jones for lieutenant governor of Georgia, presented a conflict of interest.
In court documents, Willis had urged the judge to deny Jones’ request to disqualify her. She claims Bailey was still in the running with another Democratic candidate at the time of the event.
But McBurney was unconvinced, noting that whoever wins the runoff will go on to face Jones.
“Thus the district attorney pledged his name, likeness and office to Bailey as her chosen candidate at a time when, if Bailey had succeeded (as he had), he would have faced Senator Jones,” he wrote. “That choice — which the district attorney had the right to make as an elected official — has consequences.”
The Georgia investigation has recently intensified as Trump considers whether to campaign for the White House as early as this summer.
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The grand jury recently issued subpoenas to several high-profile figures, including Trump allies Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-C.) and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, as well as conservative lawyers John Eastman, Jenna Ellis and Cleta Mitchell. Willis’ office recently informed 12 of the 16 Republicans who were fraudulent Trump voters that criminal charges could be filed.
Georgia has figured prominently in investigations into Trump’s efforts to overturn his defeat of President Biden. In the weeks after the election, a phone recording shows, Trump told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the number of votes needed to overturn Biden’s victory, which Raffensperger refused to do.
– Updated at 4:10 p.m
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