Politics

Georgia Senate Republican Leaders File Complaint Against Fani Willis, Call For Investigation

Published

1 year ago

October 9, 2023

Republican Senators in Georgia are using a new state law designed to reign in rogue prosecutors to file a complaint against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a partisan Democrat who is pursuing a sweeping RICO indictment against former President Donald Trump and 18 of his associates, advisors and lawyers over objections to the 2020 election.

Senate Bill 92, which was signed into law by Republican Governor Brian Kemp this past May, creates the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission, which opens the door for sanctions or removals of district attorneys for a number of offenses, including “willful misconduct” or “persistent failure” to follow the law.

The complaint was filed by a group of eight GOP senators that includes Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch and State Senator Jason Anavitarte, who chairs Georgia’s majority caucus.

The complaint accuses Willis of pursuing “improperly cherry-picked cases to further her personal political agenda” and asks the commission to take “appropriate measures” to sanction her, according to a report from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The integrity of our justice system is at stake, and the trust of the community in the District Attorney’s Office has been severely eroded,” reads the complaint, which was filed hours after the law took effect on October 1.

While the complaint does not specifically mention former President Trump’s case, but it does mention an increase of deaths at the Fulton County Jail and links it to Willis’ decision to “empanel a special grand jury to investigate her political adversaries” as the district deals with a large backlog of cases.

Governor Kemp — who has become a fierce rival of former President Donald Trump after the 2020 election — stated that the timing of the charges raise questions but added that he has not seen any evidence of misconduct on the part of Willis.

“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 said, according to The Atlanta 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.”