Fani Willis, responding to House Judiciary subpoena, vows to bring Trump’s election case to trial
Written by ABC Audio. All rights reserved. on March 27, 2024
(ATLANTA) — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis vowed to bring former President Donald Trump’s Georgia election interference case to trial in a letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, arguing that her office has fully complied with a congressional subpoena related to a federal funding probe.
“[N]othing that you do will derail the efforts of my staff and I to bring the election interference prosecution to trial so that a jury of Fulton County citizens can determine the guilt or innocence of the defendants,” Willis wrote in the letter, which was sent on Monday.
The GOP-led House Judiciary Committee in February issued a subpoena to Willis for documents related to her office’s use of federal funds intended to support at-risk youth, according to a copy of the subpoena obtained by ABC News.
Earlier this month, Jordan warned that if Willis’ office failed to turn over related documents by March 28, he would consider “taking further action, such as the invocation of contempt of Congress proceedings.”
In her letter responding to Jordan, Willis wrote “I categorically reject” the assertion that her office is deficient in complying with the subpoena.
Willis said that her office was turning over additional information but pushed back on the idea that all the requested materials could reasonably be turned over by the following day.
“That demand is unreasonable and uncustomary and would require this government office to divert resources from our primary purpose of prosecuting crime,” she said.
Willis added that her office plans to turn over an additional production of records in the coming weeks.
“Let me be clear, while we are abiding by your subpoena in good faith and with due diligence, we will not divert resources that undermine our duty to the people of Fulton County to prosecute felonies committed in this jurisdiction,” Willis said. “We will not shut down this office’s efforts to prosecute crime — including gang activity, acts of violence and public corruption — to meet unreasonable deadlines in your politically motivated ‘investigation’ of this office.”
“My family, my staff and I have been threatened repeatedly by people making violent, often racist, attacks,” she wrote. “Neither those threats, nor anything your colleagues and you say or do, will deter us from fulfilling our duty to bring this case to trial.”
“My family, my staff and I have been threatened repeatedly by people making violent, often racist, attacks,” she wrote. “Neither those threats, nor anything your colleagues and you say or do, will deter us from fulfilling our duty to bring this case to trial.”
Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty last August to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia. Four defendants subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.
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