Recently, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan called out Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis regarding her response to an investigation into her prosecution of Donald Trump.
Willis had previously criticized Jordan and the House Judiciary Committee, claiming their efforts were interfering with her prosecution of the former president through records requests. Jordan hit back at Willis, succinctly stating that her “position is wrong.”
Jordan wrote in a letter obtained by the Washington Examiner, “Your letter contends that the Committee, by conducting oversight into apparently politicized local prosecutions, is ‘obstruct[ing] a Georgia criminal proceeding’ and ‘advanc[ing] outrageous partisan misrepresentations.’ Your position is wrong.”
According to Jordan, Willis’ response to the records requests is evidence that Willis’ prosecution of Trump is indeed politically motivated, claiming she is “actively and aggressively engaged in such a scheme.” Willis had declared that her case against Trump was a local and state matter, therefore prohibiting Congress from investigating the case. However, Jordan rebuked this notion, claiming the prosecution of a former president merits substantial attention.
“If state or local prosecutors can engage in politically motivated prosecutions of senior federal officers for acts they performed while in federal office, this could have a profound impact on how federal officers choose to exercise their powers,” Jordan said.
Ultimately, Jordan and his committee seek to determine if Willis had “coordinated” with the Justice Department in the Trump prosecution, particularly special counsel Jack Smith, who brought a similar indictment to Willis.
“The information that we seek will allow us to assess the extent to which your indictment is politically motivated and whether Congress should therefore draft legislative reforms to, among other things, protect former and current Presidents from politically motivated prosecutions,” Jordan continued.
The Chairman of the Judiciary Committee also raised the point that the indictment of Trump could create a conflict of interest between federal and local law enforcement.
“Federal law requires the United States Secret Service to protect a former President,” Jordan added. “Therefore, your indictment raises the potential for conflict between the federal law-enforcement officials required to protect President Trump and local law-enforcement officials required to enforce your indictment and exercise control of him throughout his presence in the local criminal justice system.”
According to Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a reliable source informed him that federal officials in Washington, D.C. had been in contact with DA Willis over the case against former President Trump. Gingrich claimed someone from the District of Columbia had called Willis and pushed her to proceed with the indictment.
“I am told by a reliable source that Friday evening, somebody from Washington called the District Attorney of Atlanta and said, you have to indict on Monday. We have to cover up all of the mistakes we just made with [U.S. attorney-turned-special counsel David] Weiss,” he said.
“‘But they’re not gonna get her before noon,’” Gingrich noted further, quoting Willis. “They said, ‘That doesn’t matter.’ She said, ‘This means that it’s gonna be eight or nine or ten o’clock.’ They said, ‘It doesn’t matter. We need the news shifting off of Weiss.”
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