As the Georgia Senate continues to meet to investigate Fulton County District Fani Willis and her potential misconduct in her case against former President Donald Trump and 18 of his 2020 legal and campaign team members, one state senator on the investigatory committee says that DA Willis could face a subpoena from the state senate if she does not agree to appear before it voluntarily.
Such is what State Sen. Bill Cowsert said of the state-level investigation when speaking to local NBC affiliate WXIA-TV. According to State Sen. Cowsert, the GOP-led senate special committee, which is probing DA Willis’ potential use of state funds in her relationship with former Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade, has invited her to speak, but if she does not choose to do so voluntarily, it could subpoena her.
He said, “She’s a key part of the investigation and her viewpoints are valued by us.” State Sen. Cowsert continued, “We need to hear what she has to say and her explanation and what she thinks the appropriate rules ought to be going forward so that we don’t have this kind of scandal giving Georgia a black eye in the future.”
DA Fani Willis, for her part, has characterized the state senate’s investigation as being racist. Speaking to a crowd at a community event on Friday, May 3, she criticized the investigation by rhetorically asking the crowd, “Isn’t it interesting when we’ve got a bunch of African American DAs, now we need daddy to tell us what to do.”
Further, one of the three Democratic state senators involved with the panel, State Sen. Harold Jones II, has said that the investigation is a waste of time. “There’s nothing else to talk about quite frankly and we found that out today… that’s the only thing I learned was how to become a Fulton County Commissioner. Nothing involved the state of Georgia today. Nothing involved the Georgia State Senate today, at all,” said State Senator Jones.
In addition to facing a potential subpoena from the Georgia Senate, DA Willis faces potential contempt of Congress proceedings from Rep. Jim Jordan, who is investigating her alleged misuse of federal funds. In a letter to her in mid-March, he wrote, “While you have indicated that additional documents may be forthcoming in response to the Committee’s subpoena, the Committee has yet to receive any additional responsive materials in the three weeks since your initial response.” He continued, “If you fail to do so, the Committee will consider taking further action, such as the invocation of contempt of Congress proceedings.”
DA Willis, pushing back on his allegations in a response letter, said, “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.”
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She also wrote, “However, let 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. My family, my staff and I have been threatened repeatedly by people making violent, often racist, attacks. 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.”
Watch Rep. Jordan speak about his investigation at CPAC 2024 here:
Featured image credit: Fani for DA Campaign Website