Rep. Jim Jordan demands Georgia DA Fani Willis detail contact with feds on Trump charges
WASHINGTON — House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan insisted Thursday that Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis detail any contact with federal officials about her prosecution of former President Donald Trump as he prepares for his fourth arrest this year.
Jordan (R-Ohio) sent the demand to Willis, an elected Democrat, hours before Trump was scheduled to arrive in Atlanta to be booked into the county’s jail, where he will become the first president in US history to pose for a mugshot after avoiding that formality in his three prior criminal cases.
The five-page letter from Jordan, a staunch defender of Trump, lays out Republican pushback against Willis’ prosecution ahead of the Trump surrender and suggests that her case could be “designed to interfere with the 2024 presidential election,” in which the 77-year-old is the Republican front-runner against President Biden.
The Georgia case accuses Trump and 18 co-defendants, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, of forming a criminal conspiracy to overturn Biden’s narrow 2020 win in the Peach State.
“Given the weighty federal interests at stake, the Committee is conducting oversight of this matter to determine whether any legislative reforms are appropriate or necessary,” Jordan wrote.
“Such reforms could include changes to the federal officer removal statute, immunities for federal officials, the permissible use of federal funds, the authorities of special counsels, and the delineation of prosecutorial authority between federal and local officials.”
A bill proposed by Judiciary Committee member Rep. Russell Fry (R-SC) — the “No More Political Prosecutions Act” — would let former presidents and vice presidents transfer state criminal cases to federal courts so that elected partisans would not be able to charge leaders of the opposing party.
Jordan questioned the timing of the case, noting that press reports said Willis opened her investigation in February 2021.
“Yet, 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,” he wrote.
“Moreover, you have requested that the trial in this matter begin on March 4, 2024, the day before Super Tuesday and eight days before the Georgia presidential primary. It is therefore unsurprising many have speculated that this indictment and prosecution are designed to interfere with the 2024 presidential election.”
Jordan did not describe any evidence, but wrote that “there are questions about whether and how your office coordinated with DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith during the course of this investigation, and Congress has an interest in any such activity that involves federal law enforcement agencies and officials that fall under its oversight.”
What we know about Trump and the 18 others charged in the Georgia 2020 election probe
Donald Trump
- Former president of the United States
- Faces 13 charges related to allegedly lying about election tampering involving the 2020 presidential race in Georgia and repeatedly trying to get state officials to violate their oaths and claim there was voter fraud.
Rudy Giuliani
- Ex-New York City mayor and former federal prosecutor-turned-Trump lawyer
- Faces 13 charges for leading Trump’s election challenges while allegedly conspiring to commit crimes while impersonating a public officer and filing false documents.
Mark Meadows
- Ex-White House chief of staff
- Faces two charges over arranging a Jan. 2 call by Trump to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to try to reverse the state’s election results, after a Dec. 23 call by Trump to Frances Watson, chief investigator for the Georgia secretary of state, to do the same thing.
John Eastman
- Trump lawyer
- Faces nine charges for urging then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject Biden electors, claiming in a court filing that about 72,000 people illegally voted in Georgia and speaking at a rally before Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to disrupt certification of the election.
Jeffrey Clark
- Ex-acting assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s Civil Division
- Faces two charges over writing a late December document allegedly falsely claiming the Justice Department had “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states, including the State of Georgia.”
Kenneth Chesebro
- Trump lawyer
- Faces seven charges including for planning for alternate electors to allegedly try to thwart the election results.
Sidney Powell
- Trump lawyer
- Faces seven charges including computer theft, invasion of privacy and efforts to defraud the state after making voter-machine fraud claims and trying to access voter files.
Jenna Ellis
- Trump lawyer
- Faces two charges including for allegedly soliciting a public officer to violate their oath by pressuring state senators to support alternate electors for Trump while falsely claiming election fraud.
Ray Smith
- Trump lawyer
- Faces 12 charges including for allegedly conspiring to supporter the alternate slate of electors and pressuring officials while helping to lead Trump’s Georgia election challenges.
Mike Roman
- Trump campaign aide
- Faces seven charges including for allegedly conspiring to support the alternate electors and committing fraud while working on the plan.
Trevian Kutti
- Ex-Kanye West publicist
- Faces three charges including for allegedly soliciting false statements by meeting with election worker Ruby Freeman for one hour to pressure her to admit to ballot-stuffing at a vote-counting center.
Harrison Floyd
- Ex-executive director of Black Voices for Trump
- Faces three charges including for alleged conspiracy to solicit false statements by helping Kutti to pressure Freeman, including by allegedly saying her safety was at risk and offering protection.
Stephen Lee
- Illinois pastor
- Faces five charges including for allegedly attempting to influence witnesses and solicit false statements by pressuring Freeman, including traveling to her home and speaking with a neighbor.
Robert Cheeley
- Georgia lawyer
- Faces 10 charges including perjury and conspiring to impersonate a public officer when presenting alleged fraud evidence to legislators.
Misty Hampton
- Ex-official in Coffee County, Georgia
- Faces seven charges including conspiring to commit election fraud, computer theft and invasion of privacy after falsely alleging voter-machine fraud.
Scott Hall
- Bail bondsman
- Faces seven charges for being involved in the Coffee County voter-machine fraud claims.
Cathy Latham
- One of 16 alternate Georgia electors for Trump
- Faces 11 charges including for impersonating a public officer, forgery and lying in a deposition about her role in pressing voter-fraud claims in Coffee County.
David Shafer
- One of 16 alternate Georgia electors for Trump
- Faces eight charges including for impersonating a public officer, forgery and lying about his role in convening the alternate electors for a meeting Dec. 14.
Shawn Still
- One of 16 alternate Georgia electors for Trump
- Faces seven charges including for impersonating a public officer, forgery and lying to state senators to falsely claim that two state officials confided there was widespread fraud.
Trump also faces two federal cases brought by Smith — one related to his attempts to reverse his election loss, and the other over his alleged mishandling of national security records after leaving office — as well as a case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on 2016 hush-money payments.
Jordan, who also demanded records from Bragg, set a Sept. 7 deadline for Willis to provide “[a]ll documents and communications between or among the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office and DOJ and its components, including but not limited to the Office of Special Counsel Jack Smith, referring or relating to your office’s investigation of President Donald Trump or any of the other eighteen individuals against whom charges were brought in the indictment discussed above.”
He also asks for “[a]ll documents and communications between the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office and any federal Executive Branch officials regarding your office’s investigation of President Donald Trump or any of the other eighteen individuals against whom charges were brought in the indictment discussed above.”
The Georgia case could be the biggest threat to the former president yet because if he receives a prison sentence, the state’s governor can’t pardon him and he’d reportedly have to wait five years after completing his sentence before a state commission could review a clemency petition.
Willis’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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