Eleven Republicans who signed certificates as alternate 2020 Georgia electors asked a judge to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from her investigation into efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the state’s election results.
The group wrote in a court filing Tuesday that they are “inextricably intertwined” with state Sen. Burt Jones (R), one of the so-called fake electors whom Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney recently ruled cannot be investigated by Willis due to a conflict of interest after she hosted a fundraiser for Jones’s Democratic opponent.
“Indeed, because Senator Jones has been removed from this investigation, there is arguably an even greater likelihood that the officers of his campaign partners, his running mates, his financial supporters, and his key political allies could be treated even more harshly,” the group’s legal counsel argued in court filings.
JUDGE REBUKES GEORGIA PROSECUTOR INVESTIGATING TRUMP
Attorneys for the group asked McBurney to “reconsider its order limiting the scope of the DA and her office’s disqualification and instead order that the disqualification applies to the entire investigation and all subsequent proceedings.”
A special grand jury convened by Willis, a Democrat, is investigating whether Trump and people in his orbit illegally attempted to influence the 2020 election in Georgia.
During the fallout from the 2020 election, allies of Trump encouraged state legislatures to put forth an alternative slate of electors while they challenged the election results in several states narrowly won by President Joe Biden, including Georgia. Efforts to challenge the results were roundly rejected in courts across the country.
Still, Trump’s allies used the existence of those alternate electors as part of their justification to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to stall the Jan. 6, 2021, certification and send electoral votes back to several battleground states where GOP-led legislatures could try to overturn the results over concerns of fraud and irregularities. Lawmakers, along with Pence, reconvened that night after the Capitol riot and certified Biden’s victory. The scheme, which the White House counsel said was not legally sound, has attracted scrutiny from the House Jan. 6 committee and reportedly a criminal inquiry from the Justice Department.
Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor and Trump attorney, appeared Wednesday before the Fulton County special grand jury after he was informed by prosecutors that he was a target of the probe.
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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was ordered by a federal judge this week to appear before a grand jury on Aug. 23. Graham on Wednesday filed to stay the ruling to testify before the grand jury, requesting a hearing “no later than August 18.” However, U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May ordered Willis to respond to Graham’s emergency motion by Friday.
Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) filed a motion on Wednesday to quash a subpoena sent to him in the Fulton County inquiry, claiming Willis “engineered” the subpoena seeking his testimony to happen “in the middle of an election cycle.” Kemp is currently set to testify before the grand jury on Thursday, less than three months before his state’s gubernatorial election.
