House Republicans are intensifying their clash with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who faces scrutiny over her management of a Georgia elections case involving former President Donald Trump.
Chair of the Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), issued a subpoena on Friday demanding Willis provide records, encompassing documents, and any correspondence related to the receipt or utilization of federal funding since September 1, 2020, as revealed in a copy of the subpoena examined by POLITICO.
This move is the latest development in a broader House GOP investigation into whether Willis utilized federal funds in her inquiry into Trump.
Fani Willis (Credits: Axios)
The former president was indicted last year on racketeering charges for attempting to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results, an allegation he denies. House Republicans have also leveraged their majority to investigate nearly all of Trump’s legal cases.
In a letter accompanying the subpoena, Jordan stated that Willis’s office had failed to comply voluntarily with two prior requests for information.
However, in a letter last year, Willis accused Jordan of “abusing your authority as Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary to attempt to obstruct and interfere with a Georgia criminal prosecution.”
Jordan’s letter on Friday emphasized that Willis’ office had not responded adequately to previous requests and mentioned recent whistleblower allegations, prioritizing the production of documents regarding the office’s use of federal funds.
This subpoena follows the publication of audio by the conservative Washington Free Beacon, where a former district attorney’s office employee claimed retaliation after warning a campaign aide against misusing federal grant funding.
In his letter, Jordan asserted that the employee was terminated less than two months later, raising concerns about Willis’ supervision of federal grant funding and whether she concealed any unlawful use of such funds.
Willis dismissed the claims from her former employee in a statement on Friday, labeling them as “false allegations included in baseless litigation filed by a holdover employee from the previous administration who was terminated for cause.”
She asserted that examining the grant programs’ records, conducted in collaboration with the Department of Justice and compliance with all relevant requirements, would prove their effectiveness.
This development comes as Willis faces increased attention after a lawyer for a co-defendant in the Trump case alleged an affair between Willis and Nathan Wade, whom she hired for the prosecution. Willis has until Friday to respond to these allegations, including claims of taking vacations together using income earned from the Trump case.
