During an appearance on “The John Fredericks Show” on Thursday, former Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler said the criminal justice system of Fulton County is “frozen,” with the county jail overcrowded and 40,000 criminal cases in the backlog because District Attorney Fani Willis is “blindly” pursuing her cases against former President Donald Trump and those who helped him contest the 2020 election.
Loeffler told host John Fredericks, the publisher of The Georgia Star News, that Willis’s actions suggest “a two-tiered system of justice” and said the Georgia Legislature should encourage the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission (PAQC) to fully investigate Willis (pictured above), including how she is spending taxpayer money.
“We really don’t have the rule of law right now in Fulton County,” said Loeffler, describing the justice system as “frozen because they’re going after Trump.” She added, “They’re blindly pursuing this because we have 2024 coming up, [and] while they’re looking back at 2020, they’re also using it to interfere in the 2024 election.”
“What we have in America is a two-tiered system of justice,” Loeffler told Fredericks, adding that the PACQ will give Republicans “the ability, starting October 1st, to look at the conduct of district attorneys.”
Loeffler said Willis is using the Trump case to avoid “the job they’re supposed to do,” and said the legislature should encourage the commission to investigate how her office is spending taxpayer money, citing the deteriorating conditions at Fulton County Jail.
“In Fulton County, the case backlog is 40,000,” Loeffler explained to Fredericks.
She added, “We had 10 inmates die in Fulton County Jail waiting for their own case to be heard.”
Willis “asked for money,” and got “$5 million,” said Loeffler, adding the sum was “for one county.” She told Fredericks, “I think we have to look at, how is that money used?”
The Fulton County District Attorney’s office asked for additional funding in 2021 when Willis asked for $5 million to hire 55 new prosecutors, investigators, and support staff to clear an enormous backlog of cases. Fulton County’s backlog of cases continues, however. Fulton County Jail received an emergency $5.3 million in funding earlier this year after an inmate’s family claimed he was “eaten alive” by bedbugs at the facility.
While many Georgia activists have backed State Senator Colton Moore (R-Trenton) and his petition for a special legislative session to defund or impeach the district attorney, Loeffler said her time in the U.S. Senate taught her to use existing laws, including the law establishing the PAQC, to pursue her political goals.
“I think the case is there,” Loeffler told Fredericks, referencing the PAQC, calling it “existing law to deal with this today. We don’t have to create new laws or statutes.”
Loeffler was recommended for indictment by the special grand jury summoned in Fulton County but has not been charged by Willis.
Responding to that revelation, Loeffler told Fredericks she was “alarmed but not surprised.” She explained, “They’re literally trying to jail the leading candidate of the opposition party,” and added, “The tactics of the Left are to accuse of doing something they’re actually doing.”
The former senator added that she was surprised because she had been called to testify before the grand jury but was not informed she was a target of the investigation.
“I was called as a witness to the grand jury,” Loeffler said. “I did my testimony, and then to be voted for indictment was pretty shocking, when you consider that you should be notified if you’re a target in the first place.”
Still, Loeffler insisted “it’s about the process,” and said the grand jury recommended her because she was “standing up for election integrity” and asking questions on behalf of her constituents in 2020.
Since leaving office after narrowly losing a runoff election to Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) in 2021, Loeffler has become the chairman of voter registration organization Greater Georgia, and created FieldRight, a gig-economy app for smartphones that allows coordination between Republican campaigns and paid volunteers.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Georgia Star News and a reporter for the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Fani Willis” by Fani Willis.
