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In article <svrikf$233ck$[email protected]>
<[email protected]> wrote:

The Atlanta-area prosecutor who is probing the effort by former
President Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election
result in Georgia was disqualified by a judge Monday from
criminally investigating one of the 16 Republicans who served on
a phony slate of pro-Trump electors.

The ruling, a stunning rebuke to Fulton County District Attorney
Fani Willis, came after a judge found that a conflict of
interest barred Willis and her office from investigating state
Sen. Burt Jones, one of the sham electors.

The district attorney last month hosted a fundraiser for a
Democratic candidate who went on to win his party�s nomination
and will now face off against Jones, whom Willis had identified
as a target of the grand jury�s investigation.

�This scenario creates a plain � and actual and untenable �
conflict,� Judge Robert McBurney of the Superior Court of Fulton
County wrote in his Monday order disqualifying Willis from
pursuing Jones. �Any decision the District Attorney makes about
Senator Jones in connection with the grand jury investigation is
necessarily infected by it.�

�An investigation of this significance, garnering the public
attention it necessarily does and touching so many political
nerves in our society, cannot be burdened by legitimate doubts
about the District Attorney�s motives,� he wrote.

The order Monday rejected similar disqualification requests from
11 other phony electors who were subpoenaed by Willis�s office,
meaning the Fulton County District Attorney�s probe of those
targets may continue, and the investigation of Jones is expected
to be handed off to another prosecutor�s office.

Still, the development represented a significant unforced error
by a prosecutor handling one the nation�s most sensitive and
high-profile criminal investigations, one which poses perhaps
the most significant legal threat to Trump as the former
president eyes a 2024 bid for the White House.

The issue arose after Jones and 11 other pro-Trump electors
filed a court motion to disqualify Willis, arguing in part that
her role in hosting and headlining a mid-June fundraiser for
Charlie Bailey, a Democratic candidate vying against Jones for
lieutenant governor of Georgia, represented a conflict of
interest.

Willis, in court papers, had urged the judge to reject Jones�s
request to disqualify her. She argued that Bailey was still
locked in a runoff with a fellow Democratic contender at the
time of the event.

But McBurney was unpersuaded, noting that whoever won the runoff
would go on to face Jones.

�Thus, the District Attorney pledged her name, likeness, and
office to Bailey as her candidate of choice at a time when, if
Bailey were successful (which he was), he would face Senator
Jones,� he wrote. �This choice � which the District Attorney was
within her rights as an elected official to make � has
consequences.�

The Georgia investigation has intensified recently as Trump
considers whether to launch a White House campaign as early this
summer.

The grand jury recently issued subpoenas to several high-profile
figures, including Trump allies Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and
former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, as well as conservative
lawyers John Eastman, Jenna Ellis and Cleta Mitchell. Willis�s
office recently informed 12 of the 16 Republicans who served as
fake Trump electors that they could face criminal charges.

Georgia has figured prominently into investigations of Trump�s
effort to overturn his defeat by President Biden. In the weeks
after the election, a telephone recording shows, Trump told
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to �find� the
number of votes required to overturn Biden�s margin of victory,
which Raffensperger refused to do.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3573521-atlanta-area-da- disqualified-from-investigating-fake-trump-elector/

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