Prominent GA fake elector dodges criminal charges while others face felonies — here’s why: report

A prominent Georgia Republican, who was one of 16 acting as fake electors for Donald Trump across the state in an effort to overturn the 2020 election, has yet to face any accountability, The New York Times reports.

Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones — who, according to the Times, "may be serious about running for governor in 2026" — was a state senator at the time of the election, advocating "for a special session of the state legislature to overturn" Trump's Georgia loss, "and signed on to a failed lawsuit seeking to do the same."

Additionally, the report notes The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously noted, "Jones flew to Washington on Jan. 5, 2021, to convince Vice President Mike Pence to delay certifying the Electoral College votes, although Mr. Jones told the news outlet that he ultimately did not."

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Three of the 16 fake elector in Georgia, the Times reports, have been "charged with felonies, including violating the state racketeering law," but Jones still has faced no consequences for his actions.

The Times reports in 2022, a judge blocked Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis "from developing a case against Mr. Jones, citing a conflict of interest because she had headlined a fund-raiser for a Democratic who became his rival in the lieutenant governor’s race," which leaves "a state agency called the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia to find a special prosecutor to investigate Mr. Jones."

Republican and ex-District Attorney Peter J. Skandalakis, who leads the agency, told the newspaper this week "that he would unilaterally choose the prosecutor for the Jones case," but has "already ruled out some district attorneys, either because their staffs were too small to take on the extra work or because choosing them might seem overly partisan."

According to the Times, "This week, the district attorney in Augusta, Ga., became the first to publicly declare an interest in the job. Jared T. Williams, a Democrat, said in an interview on Tuesday that he was willing to investigate Mr. Jones’s actions after the 2020 election 'if called upon.'"

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Also this week, Democratic District Attorney Tasha M. Mosley of Clayton County told the newspaper "Skandalakis had recently asked if she would be interested in taking the case. Ms. Mosley said she had refused because her office lacked sufficient resources."

She emphasized, I cannot take any more prosecutors off the murder cases we have here. So it would require me to hire outside counsel to handle that. And I don’t have the money."

The New York Times' full report is here (subscription required).