Fulton County DA slams Jim Jordan’s investigation into her prosecution of Trump and his allies
By Annie Grayer and Sara Murray, CNN
Washington (CNN) — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis delivered a scathing response to House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan’s demands for information about her investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, slamming the Republican for trying to “interfere with an active criminal case,” according to a new letter issued on Thursday.
Willis, a Democrat, condemned Jordan’s investigation into her case against former President Donald Trump and his allies. She said the Jordan probe’s “obvious purpose is to obstruct a Georgia criminal proceeding and to advance outrageous partisan misrepresentations.”
She argued, “there is no justification in the Constitution for Congress to interfere with a state criminal matter, as you attempt to do.”
Dismissing Jordan’s requests for a broad array of documents pertaining to her investigation, Willis argued Congress does not have the jurisdiction to seek information about her ongoing criminal investigation.
“Your letter seeks the revelation of non-public and privileged information concerning my office’s investigation and prosecution of a specific case,” Willis wrote. “Your job description as a legislator does not include criminal law enforcement, nor does it include supervising a specific criminal trial because you believe that doing so will promote your partisan political objectives.”
Willis did voluntarily provide information about the federal funds her office receives. She said her office has received more than $14 million in federal grants for a variety of programs, including addressing violent crime, at-risk youth and domestic violence.
By providing the explanations for each grant, Willis seems to be trying to get ahead of a common refrain from Jordan and other House Republicans, who say the government has been weaponized against conservatives and have threatened to cut funding to federal law enforcement.
“If you and your colleagues follow through on your threats to deny this office federal funds, please be aware that you will be deciding to allow serial rapists to go unprosecuted, hate crimes to be unaddressed and to cancel programs for at-risk children,” Willis wrote. “Such vengeful, uncalled for legislative action would impose serious harm on the citizens we serve, including the fact that it will make them less safe.”
CNN has reached out to Jordan’s office for comment. In a letter to Willis last month, Jordan, an Ohio Republican, laid out why he believes his panel has jurisdiction over the state-level probe and accused Willis of being politically motivated, noting she set up a new campaign fundraising website days before the indictment came down and complained that she required mugshots for those charged – including Trump – which had not been the practice in his previous three indictments.
“You did not bring charges until two-and-a-half years later, at a time when the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination is in full swing,” Jordan wrote.
Willis also attached copies of a series of racist and violent threats targeted against her and her family. She even included the copy of an affidavit for an arrest warrant for an individual who repeatedly harassed her.
The questions from Republicans about whether Willis used federal funding in her state-level investigation mirrors the same line of inquiry that Republicans used to probe Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who indicted Trump in New York earlier this year for falsifying business records to cover up an alleged hush money scheme.
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CNN’s Jason Morris contributed to this report.
