A Georgia prosecutor has been assigned to criminally investigate the state’s Republican lieutenant governor, Burt Jones, for his alleged role in former President Trump’s attempt to subvert the state’s 2020 election results.
Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia, tasked himself with the probe 21 months after the Fulton County district attorney’s office was disqualified from Jones’s case.
The office was disqualified because Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) headlined a fundraiser for a Democratic candidate who went on to face Jones in his race for lieutenant governor. The judge overseeing the matter described Willis’s decision to partake as a “what are you thinking?” moment.
In a brief statement Thursday announcing his appointment, Skandalakis’s office said “no further comments will be made at this time.”
Jones was one of 16 pro-Trump electors who falsely signed documents claiming the former president won the state in 2020. While he was a state senator, he also attempted to convene a special session of Georgia’s Legislature with the aim of overturning President Biden’s win.
Jones said in a statement to The Hill that he looks forward to a “quick resolution” of the matter, slamming Willis for making a “mockery of this legal process.”
“I’m happy to see this process move forward and look forward to the opportunity to get this charade behind me,” Jones said.
Skandalakis’s office assumed the responsibility of appointing a prosecutor to investigate Jones in July 2022, the same month the state judge removed Willis from investigating Jones.
The development came about a year before the district attorney went on to indict Trump and more than a dozen of his allies on sprawling racketeering charges in what became Trump’s fourth set of criminal charges. Trump pleaded not guilty, and no trial date has been set.
Jones appears to be listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the indictment, though he is not identified by name in charging documents.
Updated at 11:11 a.m. ET