This week, Georgia’s Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who heads the case on 2020 election interference involving former President Donald Trump and his allies, issued a combative response to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) in a clash over documents.
On Monday, the prosecutor sent a letter to Jordan, firmly rejecting the chairman’s claim that her office hadn’t adequately responded to his subpoena issued in early February.
“As you note in your letter, we have already provided you with substantial information about our programs that are funded via federal grants,” Willis wrote in a letter.
Jordan issued the subpoena following the release of audio by the Washington Free Beacon, where an employee informed Willis about possible misuse of federal funds weeks before being fired. Willis has dismissed any allegations of misconduct.
Two weeks ago, the chairman sent a follow-up letter to Willis, acknowledging that the DA had provided some records but insisting on full compliance with document requests and a subpoena by Thursday. Failure to comply could result in contempt of Congress proceedings.
Willis said a February 23 letter she sent Jordan expressed that her office was “in the process of producing relevant documents to you on a rolling basis and is undertaking a good faith effort to provide you with responsive information about our federal grant funding.”
Although the DA said her office was making another production on Monday as part of that “ongoing process,” she claimed Jordan’s “extensive” demands that cover several years for records in less than two months are “unreasonable and uncustomary.”
Willis stressed that such a task would force her office to “divert resources from our primary purpose of prosecuting crime,” although she didn’t specify any particular case.
“Let me be clear, while we are abiding by your subpoena in good faith and with due diligence, we will not divert resources that undermine our duty to the people of Fulton County to prosecute felonies committed in this jurisdiction,” Willis stated.
“We will not shut down this office’s efforts to prosecute crime — including gang activity, acts of violence and public corruption — to meet unreasonable deadlines in your politically motivated ‘investigation’ of this office,” she added.
Willis stated that her office plans to provide another set of documents in the “coming weeks.”
She then alluded to Trump’s trial, which she reportedly hopes to have before the 2024 election after a judge allowed her to press forward with special prosecutor Nathan Wade resigning amid concerns about a romantic relationship between him and the DA.
“[L]et me again state this clearly: nothing that you do will derail the efforts of my staff and I to bring the election interference prosecution to trial so that a jury of Fulton County citizens can determine the guilt or innocence of the defendants,” she said.
“My family, my staff and I have been threatened repeatedly by people making violent, often racist, attacks,” Willis added. “Neither those threats, nor anything your colleagues and you say or do, will deter us from fulfilling our duty to bring this case to trial.”
Trump and 18 co-defendants entered pleas of not guilty in the Georgia election case. Since then, four of them have agreed to plea deals. Trump and some of his co-defendants have been granted approval to appeal the decision that allowed Willis to remain on the case.
As the former president launches another campaign for a second term in the White House, he is confronted with four criminal cases and civil lawsuits. Despite facing these legal challenges, he has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and asserted that prosecutors are conducting a politically motivated “witch hunt” against him.
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