The judge overseeing the case against President Trump in Georgia, Robert McBurney, is off to an astounding start. That is our takeaway from his suggestion that Mr. Trump is Rumpelstiltskin, weaving golden opportunity out of the straw of criminal charges. The judge, in rejecting the former president’s effort to dismiss the case, appears to be of the mind that Mr. Trump’s waxing in the polls means that the judge needn’t cut him any slack in the courtroom. 

Since when is justice handed out in America on the basis of polls?  The jurist appears to be imbibing their tale of Mr. Trump’s electoral strength, musing in a footnote that “for some, being the subject of a criminal investigation can, à la Rumpelstiltskin, be turned into golden political capital, making it seem more providential than problematic.” Meaning that Mr. Trump is entitled to more skepticism rather than more due process.

If Judge McBurney wonders why Mr. Trump’s popularity appears more political reality than fairy tale, he has to look no farther than his own jurisdiction. He praises District Attorney Fani Willis for her “marked and refreshing contrast to the stream of personal invective” emanating from the former president. Where’s he been? He says nothing of disgraceful comportment  undertaken by, say, a grand jury forewoman, Emily Kohrs, who makes Mr. Trump look like a Trappist monk. 

Ms. Kohrs further reflected that it was “fascinating to get this peek into the world of politics and of all these different – of government and of all these different things and have the curtain lifted just a little bit and let us peek in as regular people has been amazing.” She spoke on-camera to NBC News and CNN, and granted interviews to the Associated Press, New York Times, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She could be Andy Warhol’s dream.

Ms. Kohrs opined that she would be “sad” if no charges were brought and that she “would be frustrated if nothing happens, this was too much information, too much of my time, too much of everyone’s time, too much of their time… there was just too much for this to be, ‘OK we’re good, bye.’” She reports that she ate a Teenage-Mutant Ninja Turtles ice pop during testimony. She “really liked talking” to one of the witnesses, Senator Graham. 

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which Georgia’s echo, mandate that jurors and attorneys “must not disclose a matter occurring before the grand jury.” Secrecy is the name of the grand jury game. The Peachtree State bars disclosing “deliberations” but not — technically — the kinds of reflections shared by Ms. Kohrs. A wink and a node to an indictment is apparently not what Judge McBurney considers a “deliberation.”

Judge McBurney, silent on Ms. Kohrs, comes down on Ms. Willis’s side here, finding that the “drumbeat from the District Attorney’s Office has been neither partisan (in the political sense) nor personal” and praising her for “doing a fairly routine — and legally unobjectionable — job of public relations.” The prosecutor has reported receiving racist threats. The judge adds that “The prosecutor is not a neutral party.” The prosecutor — and the judge — still owe Mr. Trump due process.

We mark Judge McBurney’s reach for the Brothers Grimm because Mr. Trump is both a criminal defendant — and is likely to be four times over —  and also the front runner for his party’s presidential nomination. A January 6 indictment from the special counsel, Jack Smith, appears imminent. If Mr. Trump’s legal troubles galvanize votes, that is not a matter for judicial sneering. The presumption of innocence is owed to the presumptive nominee.