One month later, case against LG Jones still awaiting prosecutor
Probe into LG remains unresolved
The case against Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and his involvement in the Trump campaign’s fake elector plot is still waiting to be assigned to another prosecutor.
Last month’s sweeping election racketeering indictment in Fulton County, which resulted in charges against former President Donald Trump and 18 of his allies, listed an additional 30 unnamed unindicted co-conspirators.
Investigative journalists quickly identified Jones as “unindicted co-conspirator individual 8,” who is referenced more than a dozen times in the 98-page document — including as a fake elector.
Jones, a Republican, was a state senator at the time of the 2020 election. He also played a key role in the alleged fake elector scheme, when he and more than a dozen other Trump allies signed documents falsely claiming that Trump had won Georgia’s 16 electoral votes.
Jones and another Republican state senator also flew to Washington, D.C. the night before the January 6 Capitol riot to encourage then-Vice President Mike Pence to declare the electoral college results invalid and send them back to state legislatures.
The son of a Butts County oil tycoon, State Sen. Jones was seen by many as a candidate for statewide office in 2022. He ran for and won the open race for Lieutenant Governor last year with the former President's blessing.
On paper, Jones sounds like he would be a high-profile defendant in a case like this. So why was he not indicted?
He had initially received a notice from District Attorney Fani Willis informing him that he was a subject of the investigation. But he took Willis to court accusing her of a political conflict of interest because she held a campaign fundraiser for his Democratic opponent.
A judge sided with Jones and prohibited Willis’ office from questioning him as part of their investigation.
Jones and his allies took the ruling as a victory lap, but the focus has once again shifted back to him after last month’s indictment.
Pete Skandalakis, the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorney’s Council of Georgia, was one of several parties seeking the release of a report from a special grand jury that spent nearly a year investigating the case and interviewing witnesses. Last January the panel concluded its investigation and issued a report recommending indictments, though their decisions were not final because they lacked the authority of an official grand jury.
The report was unsealed this month. Jones, along with Georgia’s two former Republican U.S. Senators, were among the 39 individuals who were recommended for charges.
Skandalakis says that he is still weighing whether to assign Jones’ case to another prosecutor or agency and that the unsealed special grand jury report will be key to his decision.
But he appears to be in no rush to make a decision. He says that no prosecutor has been named as of today and that “we do not expect an appointment to be made immediately.”
In other words, don’t expect Jones’ case to be resolved any time soon.
As for Jones himself? He blasted the investigation as a “political circus” following the release of the special grand jury report and said that Fani Willis is turning a blind eye to issues like violent crime. “Fani is obviously focused on what’s best for her political career, I’m focused on what’s best for Georgia,” said Jones.
The LG has also headlined fundraisers for some of the defendants in the case, a move that might not satisfy his attorneys down the line if he ends up facing charges.
The event aims to unite several of the state’s MAGA loyalists, including Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who won statewide office with Trump’s endorsement, and state Sen. Colton Moore, whose doomed push to impeach Willis has drawn the fury of fellow Republicans and triggered threats against his Senate colleagues.
The case against Jones is also looming large in the state Senate, where the Lieutenant Governor serves as the presiding officer.
Senate Democrats issued a statement saying that a special prosecutor must be appointed to investigate Jones’ involvement in the fake elector plot. “[Lt. Gov. Jones] doesn’t get a pass simply because the Fulton County DA wasn’t permitted to bring charges,” they said.
Their Republican counterparts fired right back: “Georgia Senate Democrats [can’t] help but prove why they have been in the minority for two decades and are destined to stay there,” they responded, saying they will never forget the Democrats’ “childish political theater.”
As the investigation into Jones intensifies, so will this war of words.
But it might be a while before we know exactly who will prosecute Jones’ case.