By Audrey Fahlberg, October 22, 2025 2:28 PM | National Review
A special prosecutor has been appointed in the investigation into Democratic Virginia attorney general nominee Jay Jones’s 2022 reckless driving case, according to a court filing obtained by National Review, raising questions about the nature of the ongoing probe into a legal matter that was ostensibly finalized nearly two years ago.
New Kent County Commonwealth’s Attorney Scott Renick asked that he be recused from the investigation due to an unspecified potential conflict. Judge Elliott Bondurant issued an order granting Renick’s recusal request and appointing Nathan Green, the commonwealth’s attorney for James City County, as special prosecutor.
It’s not uncommon for commonwealth’s attorneys to request recusals in cases where there are conflicts of interest, and yet it is curious that prosecutors are actively looking into what appeared until recently to be a settled legal matter.
Jones was convicted of reckless driving in New Kent County after being pulled over driving 116mph in a 70mph zone in 2022. He was ordered to pay a $1,500 fine and serve 1,000 community service hours. The New Kent County general district court received signed certificates of completion in January 2024 attesting that Jones had served 500 of those community service hours for his own political action committee, Meet Our Moment (MOM PAC), and the remaining 500 hours for the Virginia chapter of the NAACP.
Jones’s reckless driving case came under scrutiny after the Richmond Times-Dispatch exposed the conviction earlier this month, disrupting Jones’s campaign for Virginia attorney general. On October 9, ABC7 News reported that Renick, the New Kent County Commonwealth’s Attorney, was investigating how exactly Jones had cleared his community service hours.
The certificates signed by representatives of the NAACP and MOM PAC attest that Jones completed more than 500 hours of community service for each organization within the 2023 calendar year. In order to complete that number of hours within one year, Jones would have had to dedicate ten hours of every week to MOM PAC and ten hours to the NAACP, all while working at the law firm Hogan Lovells full time. Social media posts show Jones also traveled the state campaigning for fellow Democrats throughout that year.
On Tuesday, roughly two weeks after the ABC7 report, Judge Bondurant signed an order granting Renick’s request to recuse himself from the probe and have a special prosecutor appointed in “the matter currently pending in the General District Court in New Kent County.” The order names Jerrauld C. Jones as defendant and references the case number of his reckless driving conviction.
The ABC7 article suggests that Renick’s office was scrutinizing the hours that Jones claimed to have completed for MOM PAC, given Jones’s affiliation with the organization and the partisan nature of the PAC’s mission. “It’s supposed to be something where you’re giving back to the community,” Renick told ABC7 earlier this month.
The order does not specify the conflict that caused Renick to recuse himself from the case.
“This day came T. Scott Renick, Commonwealth’s Attorney of New Kent County, Virginia, and advised the Court that in his opinion it would be improper for him to act in the matter currently pending in the General District Court in New Kent County, due to a potential conflict,” the order reads.
“Therefore, in accordance with Section 19.2-155 of the Code of Virginia, as amended, the Court doth appoint Nathan R. Green, Commonwealth’s Attorney for Williamsburg/James City County, or his designee, as Special Prosecutor, to exercise all powers of the Attorney for the Commonwealth in this matter,” the order continues.
It’s unclear exactly which aspects of Jones’s conviction or sentencing Renick’s office was investigating before he recused himself. The James City County commonwealth’s attorney office declined to comment on the special prosecutor order.
A spokesman for Jones did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether the attorney general candidate has been informed of any prospective new probe into his reckless driving case or whether he has retained new legal counsel as a result.
What is clear is that there is an active, ongoing probe into Jones’s case. National Review first became aware of the existence of an investigation after making a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the New Kent County commonwealth’s attorney office seeking the full court file for Jones’s 2022 reckless driving conviction. The commonwealth’s attorney’s office responded by saying that the request could not be fulfilled and cited a statute that authorizes the office to withhold documentation that pertains to an ongoing investigation.
“Pursuant to Code of Virginia Section 2.2-3706.1(E)(1), this office will not share that information, at this time,” a spokesperson for the office wrote.
Hanover County Commonwealth’s Attorney Mackenzie Babichenko told NR that she would cite that statute when denying a FOIA request in cases where there is an ongoing criminal investigation.
The special counsel revelation comes after National Review revealed earlier this month that Jones sent a series of text messages in 2022 fantasizing about shooting then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert, upending his bid for attorney general.