FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis called an investigation of her office launched last month by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee an “obvious” attempt to influence the case involving former President Donald Trump, according WSB-TV.
Willis made the claim in response to a letter sent last month by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, seeking her office’s communications with the Justice Department and information on federal funding they receive. In a statement issued Aug. 24, the committee said it was investigating Willis’s office following the indictment of Trump and 18 others accused of racketeering to keep the former president in the White House in 2020.
“(The letter’s) obvious purpose is to obstruct a Georgia criminal proceeding and to advance outrageous partisan misrepresentations,” Willis said in a letter dated Thursday and obtained by WSB. “There is no justification in the Constitution for Congress to interfere with a state criminal matter, as you attempt to do.”
She accused Jordan of attempting to violate Georgia’s sovereignty by trying to “second guess or somehow supervise an ongoing Georgia criminal investigation.”
“Your letter seeks the revelation of non-public and privileged information concerning my office’s investigation and prosecution of a specific case,” she wrote.
“Your public statements and your letter itself make clear that you lack any legitimate legislative purpose for that inquiry: your job description as a legislator does not include criminal law enforcement, nor does it include supervising a specific criminal trial because you believe that doing so will promote your partisan political objectives.”
She added that she often tells people to “deal with reality or reality will deal with you.”
“It is time that you deal with some basic realities,” she wrote. “A Special Purpose Grand Jury made up of everyday citizens investigated for 10 months and made recommendations to me. A further reality is that a grand jury of completely different Fulton County citizens found probable cause against the defendants named in the indictment for RICO violations and various other felonies. Face this reality, Chairman Jordan: the select group of defendants who you fret over in my jurisdiction are like every other defendant, entitled to no worse or better treatment than any other American citizen.”
In the Aug. 24 letter, Jordan demanded that Willis turn over documents related to her office’s use of federal funds, communications with the DOJ — including with special counsel Jack Smith, who is tasked with overseeing federal investigations involving Trump — and other records related to the investigation.
“Your indictment and prosecution implicate substantial federal interests, and the circumstances surrounding your actions raise serious concerns about whether they are politically motivated,” Jordan wrote.
He told WSB Radio that the committee had no evidence that Willis coordinated with Smith, but said that his committee is “asking the questions.”
“The American people are entitled to know,” he said, according to WSB Radio. “I think it’s important we get all the facts out there on the table for the American people and also that we do our jobs.”
A grand jury last month indicted Trump and 18 others after a yearslong investigation into interference in the 2020 presidential election. Authorities accused Trump and his co-conspirators of racketeering to change the outcome of the 2020 election in Trump’s favor.
The former president lost Georgia to President Joe Biden by 11,779 votes, WSB-TV reported.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing, accusing Willis and other prosecutors and investigators of launching probes into his conduct for political reasons ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination.
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