Photo: CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA / AFP / Getty Images
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has given a scathing response to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan’s demands for information about his investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. in Georgia, criticizing the Republican lawmaker for trying to “interfere with an active criminal case,” according to a new letter released Thursday.
Jordan asked Willis to turn over all documents related to his prosecution of former President Trump and 18 others on election interference-related charges, based on his decision to investigate the case brought by the Georgia prosecutor that led to the indictment against the former president. Donald Trump and 18 other defendants.
Willis, a Democrat, accused Jordan in her letter of overstepping his authority in Congress with his recent requests for information regarding his investigation.
Responding to a letter Jordan sent late last month, Willis said that “there is no justification in the Constitution for Congress to interfere in a state criminal matter.”
Trump was indicted in Fulton County last month with felony racketeering and numerous counts of conspiracy in a 41-count indictment that named 19 defendants. Jordan announced that he would launch a congressional inquiry into the Willis investigation. shortly before Trump turned himself in at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta.
“The obvious purpose” of Jordan’s requests, Willis said, “is to obstruct criminal proceedings in Georgia and promote outrageous partisan misrepresentations.”
Willis said his public statements and recent letter “make it clear that there is no legitimate legislative purpose for that investigation.”
“Her job description as a legislator does not include criminal law enforcement, nor does it include overseeing a specific criminal trial because she believes doing so will further her partisan political goals,” the Georgia prosecutor said.
“Your letter makes it clear that you lack a basic understanding of the law, its practice, and the ethical obligations of lawyers in general and prosecutors in particular,” Willis added.
He then wrote that while “established constitutional law” allows him to “ignore your unwarranted and unlawful intrusion into an open state criminal proceeding,” he would respond to parts of his original letter.
Willis also said that if people want to avoid felony charges in Fulton County, such as violations of state organized crime, or RICO, laws, then they should not commit those serious crimes.
The prosecutor wrote that Jordan’s questioning about the length of the investigation and the timing of the prosecution is “unfounded,” adding that he had no basis to imply that his office had inappropriately spent federal funds. He said his office receives federal funds from the Department of Justice and warned that if Congress blocked that money, “you will decide to allow serial rapists to go unprosecuted, hate crimes to go unaddressed and end programs to serve children in risk.”
Willis also listed a number of “suggestions for productive activity” for the Judiciary Committee, including that Congress should increase federal funding to pass rape kits and expand a program for children in trouble with the criminal justice system.
Finally, he said that because Jordan seems to have a vested interest in his office”You should consider directing the USDOJ to investigate the racist threats that have come to my staff and me because of this investigation.”
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