ATLANTA (AP) – A judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit seeking to disqualify Georgia Lt. Gov. Bert Jones from holding office because of his participation as a Republican elector for President Donald Trump in 2020.
Butts County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson said the four voters who filed the lawsuit could use legal action similar to the one they filed to attack Jones' actions in 2020, when he was a state senator. It was ruled that it could not be done.
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The lawsuit is similar to other efforts to keep President Trump and some of his supporters from voting and prosecute those who falsely pretended to be legitimate Trump electors in states won by Joe Biden. Ta.
Civil rights activist Richard Rose, one of the plaintiffs, said Friday that he expected Wilson to rule against him and expected to appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court.
Jones “violated his oath by lying that he was a legitimate elector of the state of Georgia, which is not true,” Rose said. (Missing the word “the” or CQ?)
Jones claims the lawsuit is an unfair effort by Democrats to unseat him.
“Democratic activists in Georgia are trying to use the legal system to overturn the will of voters, just as liberal activists in states like Colorado and Maine are trying to do against President Trump,” Jones said in a statement. “There is,” he said. “I am glad to see the court strike down this ridiculous political attack.”
The lawsuit comes as the decision to prosecute Jones on state charges remains stalled due to the lack of a willing special prosecutor to take on the case.
In December, the plaintiffs asked a judge to declare Jones ineligible to hold public office in Georgia, saying he violated his oath as a state senator by signing on as Trump's elector. Biden was certified as having won Georgia's 16 electoral votes in the 2020 election.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday blocked voting in the 2024 presidential election, citing President Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. agreed to hear Trump's appeal of a Colorado court ruling.
For the first time, the court will consider the meaning and scope of the post-Civil War Fourteenth Amendment's provision barring some people “involved in the rebellion” from holding public office.
In Georgia, challengers argued that the same provision barred Jones from holding public office, calling him a “rebel against the Constitution of the United States.”
Mr. Jones' lawyers argued that the challenge lacked evidence of sedition, a view the judge agreed with.
Jones was one of 16 Republicans who gathered at the Georgia State Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, claiming to be legitimate electors. The meeting is crucial to the prosecution of Trump and 18 others who were indicted by a Georgia grand jury in August on charges of trying to overturn Biden's narrow victory.
Of the people indicted in Georgia in August, only three were charged with acting as Trump electors, and all were charged with other crimes.
Michigan and Nevada have also filed criminal charges against Trump electors. In Wisconsin, 10 Republicans settled a civil lawsuit last month, admitting they had tried to overturn Biden's victory.
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A previous Georgia special grand jury recommended that Jones face felony charges. However, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was prevented from prosecuting Jones. The judge ruled that Willis, a Democrat, had a conflict of interest because he hosted a fundraiser for the Democrat who lost to Jones in the 2022 race for lieutenant governor.
The State Prosecuting Attorneys Council is supposed to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate whether Jones' actions were criminal, but has not yet acted.
