On Monday, January 29, members of the Georgia House of Representatives passed a bill that would revive a commission granted powers to both discipline and remove prosecutors. The bill was likely aimed at Fulton County DA Fani Willis, who is accused of misusing government resources by profiting from a sexual relationship with Nathan Wade. Wade is one of the special prosecutors she appointed for the Trump RICO case.
As background, Willis appointed three special prosecutors to take on the RICO case against Trump and 18 members of his 2020 campaign and legal teams. She was, meanwhile, conducting an affair with Nathan Wade, one of them, and Wade appears to have bought airplane tickets in her name and paid for a cruise they took together.
Now, the Georgia House has approved House Bill 881 in a party line, 95-75 vote. The bill has now been sent to the Senate for further debate, and has a reasonable chance of passing, given that a similar bill advanced in the Senate the week before. It would investigate DA Willis’ alleged affair with Nathan Wade and look into evidence of wrongdoing.
Predictably, Democrats and Republicans were quite split on the Willis issue. House Republicans argued that such an oversight panel will be necessary to hold Willis accountable and look into potential wrongdoing across prosecutor offices. Democrats argued that it was a clear attempt to defend Donald Trump and punish Willis for investigating him.
For example, one Republican member of the Georgia House, Rep. Joseph Gullett, said that the goal is simply to bring accountability to the “rogue” DAs. Speaking to the Associated Press, he said, “This commission will now be able to begin their real work, which is bringing accountability to those rogue prosecuting attorneys who abuse their office.”
Further, the AP added that Rep. Gullett and other Republicans like him have denied that DA Willis is the direct target of the oversight panel and the bill to start it up. They argue that it is rather meant to combat prosecutor misconduct generally, an idea that Democrats have supported in the past as well.
They are not supporting this effort, however. The House Minority Whip, Rep. Sam Park, derided the bill as an effort to defend Trump. He said, “The commission will be able to unilaterally proceed and have the ability to interfere and undermine an ongoing investigation against Donald J. Trump. You are taking action to protect former President Trump from an ongoing criminal prosecution.”
Despite what Rep. Park said, an Atlanta area attorney, once an assistant US attorney in Atlanta, told Fox News Digital that it makes sense the legislature wants to look into Willis because of the black mark her alleged conduct has given justice in the state. He said, “They ought to be looked into, and it has certainly imperiled this prosecution and given a black mark, not only to Fulton County, but potentially to the entire state, so I can understand why the Georgia legislature is up in arms about this.”
DA Willis, for her part, has alleged that the criticism of her is coming because of her race. She said, “They only attacked one. First thing they say, ‘Oh, she’s gonna play the race card now.’ But no God, isn’t it them that’s playing the race card when they only question one. You cannot expect Black women to be perfect and save the world,” Willis said, adding that “we need to be allowed to stumble. We need grace.” Watch her here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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