Court Compels District Attorney Fani Willis to Release Communications and Records in Trump Case

December 3, 2024 TruthUSA

A court has instructed Willis to perform a ‘diligent search’ and supply any copies of ‘responsive records.’

A judge mandated the district attorney of Fulton County, Georgia, to release any communications she may have had with federal special counsel Jack Smith and the House Jan. 6 subcommittee.

A March lawsuit initiated by the conservative group Judicial Watch against District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, in the Fulton County Superior Court sought records regarding any potential communications with the committee or Smith’s office. The judge was asked to issue a default judgment to fulfill Judicial Watch’s request for Willis to cover its attorney fees and furnish relevant records to the organization.

In favoring Judicial Watch, the superior court concluded that Willis had “never moved to open default on any basis (not even during the period when she could have opened default as a matter of right), she never paid costs, and she never presented a valid defense.”

Willis has been directed to “conduct a diligent search of her records for responsive materials within five business days” of the order and is required to provide Judicial Watch “with copies of all responsive records that are not legally exempted or excluded from disclosure.”

If her office withholds records, she must adhere to court-ordered protocols and explain why such correspondence is deemed not to exist.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Fulton County district attorney’s office for comment on Tuesday but received no response by the time of publication. Her office did not provide remarks in court and has not yet issued a public statement following the ruling.

In mid-2023, Willis stated during a local radio interview that she was not coordinating with Smith’s office concerning investigations or cases involving former President Donald Trump. Smith has brought charges against Trump, now the president-elect, regarding both classified documents and election-related matters across two jurisdictions, while Willis charged Trump and over a dozen others for suspected election-related offenses within Fulton County.

“I don’t know what Jack Smith is doing and Jack Smith doesn’t know what I’m doing,” Willis remarked in July that year. “Honestly, if Jack Smith were standing next to me, I doubt I would recognize him. He probably wouldn’t be able to pronounce my name correctly either.”

Since that time, however, she has refrained from commenting on Smith’s investigation. Conversely, Smith has never publicly addressed Willis’s case against Trump.

In November, Smith filed court documents indicating he would discontinue his election case against Trump and halt the appeals related to his classified documents case. While campaigning for the 2024 presidential election, Trump has stated he would terminate Smith from his position as special counsel upon taking office.

A letter from Willis’s office on December 17, 2021, to the House Jan. 6 committee had “requested access to any Select Committee records pertinent to her investigation into President Trump’s actions challenging the 2020 presidential election, including ‘recordings and transcripts of witness interviews and depositions, electronic and print correspondence, and travel records,'” asserted House Judiciary Republicans in a report published last year regarding their investigation into Willis.

Willis has criticized House Republicans for probing into her office and the Trump case, accusing House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) of attempting to interfere with the case at one point.

“Jim Jordan has consistently attacked my office with no legitimate reason,” she told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow in May. “Anyone familiar with Jim Jordan’s history knows that his sole purpose is to disrupt a criminal investigation.”

In a letter sent to Republicans in 2023, Willis accused them of attempting to “obstruct a Georgia criminal proceeding and advance outrageous partisan misrepresentations.”

Her case against Trump has encountered delays in recent months after one of the co-defendants submitted a court filing earlier in the year alleging that Willis and then-special prosecutor Nathan Wade were involved in a romantic relationship. Although both acknowledged their relationship, they denied any misconduct.

A judge overseeing the case issued an order in March permitting Willis to continue with the case, provided that Wade resigned, which he did shortly thereafter. Trump and several co-defendants have appealed this decision to the Georgia Court of Appeals, where the matter is still under consideration.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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