Georgia GOP Senators Ask Board To Sanction DA Fani Willis Over Trump Charges, Report Says

Topline

Republican state senators in Georgia asked a newly created board overseeing the state’s district attorneys to investigate Democratic Fulton County DA Fani Willis, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Monday, asking for the board to sanction Willis after she indicted former President Donald Trump and 18 of his allies.

This is what democracy looks like: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis at the Fulton County … [+] Courthouse in Atlanta on August 8.

The Washington Post via Getty Images

Key Facts

Eight GOP state lawmakers filed a request with the state’s new Prosecuting Attorneys Qualification Commission right after it started accepting complaints on October 1, the Journal-Constitution reported, saying the board should impose “appropriate sanctions” against the prosecutor.

The complaint accuses Willis of “improperly cherry-pick[ing]

cases to further her personal political agenda” and “prioritiz[ing] cases that align with her political party’s interests,” as quoted by the Journal-Constitution, after her office indicted Trump and his allies for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

It also links Willis to recent deaths of inmates at the Fulton County Jail and the facility’s poor conditions, claiming the DA’s “selective prosecution has resulted in dangerous, deadly, and unjust overcrowding in the local jail and an unprecedented backlog of cases in the judicial system.”

Willis declined to comment on the complaint to the Journal-Constitution, but has previously decried the law that established the commission as “racist” against the state’s prosecutors of color.

What To Watch For

Under Senate Bill 92, which established the commission to investigate prosecutors, punishments against prosecutors if they’re found to have committed wrongdoing could include “public reprimand, censure, limitation on the performance of prosecutorial duties, suspension, retirement or removal” from office. Since the commission was only just established, the Journal-Constitution notes it won’t issue decisions anytime soon, as it still has to come up with its rules and regulations and have those approved by the Georgia Supreme Court. Ultimately, Georgia State University law professor Clark Cunningham told the Journal-Constitution he believes the challenge against Willis is unlikely to succeed. “The law is intended to set a fairly high bar for such an extraordinary intervention,” Cunningham said. “And a complaint like this seems to be an inappropriate use of the oversight process.”

Contra

Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has opposed lawmakers’ efforts to punish Willis, saying he doesn’t believe the prosecutor did anything illegal by bringing charges against Trump. “I haven’t seen anything that she has done that has broken the law or the procedures that we have. And I’ve been very honest with people about that,” Kemp told the Journal-Constitution. “It may be a political action she’s taken in some ways, with timing and other things, but it doesn’t mean it’s illegal.”

Key Background

Willis brought indictments against Trump and his allies in August, accusing them of constituting a criminal enterprise in their efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The indictments were the product of a yearslong investigation by Willis’ office that began in February 2021, and the prosecutor has been a frequent target of Trump’s ire, with the ex-president repeatedly accusing her of being politically biased against him. The complaint is part of a broader effort by Republicans both in and out of Georgia to punish Willis in response to her indicting Trump: A small number of GOP state lawmakers have pushed for her to be impeached, and the U.S. House Oversight Committee launched an investigation into Willis, which she has strongly opposed. The Journal-Constitution noted Monday that state lawmakers may also continue to bring other actions against Willis, with Republican Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch, who’s among the lawmakers that brought the complaint, suggesting the legislature could also hold hearings against her or take other steps. “We won’t relent until she feels the consequences of her misplaced priorities,” he said.

Tangent

Georgia’s law establishing the commission investigating state attorneys was enacted in May to go after “rogue” prosecutors, with the Guardian noting that in addition to Willis, the legislation was widely believed to target Deborah Gonzalez, a prosecutor for Athens-Clarke government and Oconee County who has imposed criminal justice reforms and refused to prosecute abortion-related crimes. The law is part of a broader effort nationwide by Republicans to penalize prosecutors who they believe are left-leaning or politically biased against them: Texas has also adopted a similar law, while Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has removed multiple Democratic prosecutors in the state. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who indicted Trump earlier this year, has similarly been targeted by Republicans, with House lawmakers opening an investigation into him earlier this year.