A Fulton County Superior Court judge finds himself at the center of the Georgia investigation looking into former President Trump’s efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results as a potential fourth indictment looms over the former president.
Judge Robert C.I. McBurney oversaw the special grand jury tasked with reviewing election interference in 2020 that released a partial report about its findings earlier this year and is now overseeing the grand jury where District Attorney Fani Willis (D) is presenting her case ahead of possible charges in connection to the investigation.
Willis has signaled that charges in her years-long investigation are imminent, meaning that Trump could face his fourth indictment this year in the coming days. It’s unclear whether McBurney will be assigned to Trump’s case if he ends up being indicted.
McBurney was appointed by former Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal (R) in 2012 to succeed former Judge Marvin Arrington. Since then, McBurney has been elected three times to serve as a judge of the Georgia 5th Superior Court District, Atlanta Circuit.
He had previously served as the assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia and the assistant district attorney of Fulton County, according to the court’s website.
Last month, McBurney rejected Trump’s efforts to quash the investigation looking into the potential interference during the 2020 election. He wrote in a ruling that Trump’s arguments were “either insufficient or else speculative and unrealized.”
“They are insufficient because, while being the subject (or even target) of a highly publicized criminal investigation is likely an unwelcome and unpleasant experience, no court ever has held that that status alone provides a basis for the courts to interfere with or halt the investigation,” he wrote.
Trump has also sued McBurney and Willis in a separate lawsuit alongside his petition to the Georgia supreme court — an additional attempt to quash the investigation.
“Petitioner’s every attempt to seek redress in the normal course have been ignored, and the District Attorney has given every indication that the injury is imminent,” Trump wrote in the petition last month.
McBurney also issued a separate ruling early in the investigation barring Willis from investigating then-state Sen. Burt Jones, who served as one of the 16 fake electors in the state and is now its lieutenant governor. Willis had previously thrown a fundraiser last year for a Democratic candidate who would go on to face off against Jones in the lieutenant governor’s race.
“This scenario creates a plain — and actual and untenable – conflict,” McBurney wrote in his order disqualifying Willis from pursuing Jones at the time. “Any decision the District Attorney makes about Senator Jones in connection with the grand jury investigation is necessarily infected by it.”
McBurney was also the judge who overturned Georgia’s ban on abortion starting about six weeks into a pregnancy in November, saying it was “plainly unconstitutional.”
