Judicial Watch on Tuesday said Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is hiding records of communications between her office and the House January 6 committee after Willis claimed records of such conversations are “legally exempted” in response to a court order demanding she respond to a freedom of information request related to her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump.
Willis was ordered to respond to the information request filed by Judicial Watch in a December 4 court order. In a court filing submitted by Willis’ office, and published by Judicial Watch, the district attorney acknowledged the existence of “communication sent or received from the United States House January 6th Committee,” but asserted the records cannot be released, “because they arose from the investigation, subsequent indictment, and prosecution” of Trump and those who helped him contest the 2020 election results in Georgia.
Tom Fitton, the group’s president, said Judicial Watch does not accept Willis’ claim that the records are exempt from their request in a post to X.
“After first denying she had any, [Judicial Watch] (and a state court) forced Fani Willis to confirm additional documents exist about her collusion with partisan Pelosi Jan 6 Committee to get [Trump].” Fitton wrote, “But Willis, citing legal exemptions for a prosecution that’s essentially dead in the water, now wants to hide these records from the America public. Judicial Watch plans to push back in court against this disingenuous secrecy.”
https://twitter.com/TomFitton/status/1866508901824266454
Fitton additionally stated that Willis’ case against Trump was “dead in the water,” casting doubt on her ability to cite her ongoing prosecution of the president-elect as a reason not to release her communications with the House committee.
“Willis, citing legal exemptions for a prosecution that’s essentially dead in the water, now wants to hide these records from the American public,” said Fitton.
In her legal filing, Willis additionally claimed that zero records of communications exist between her office and Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought federal charges against Trump for his contest of the 2020 election results.
That denial came despite invoices submitted by Nathan Wade, the private attorney Willis hired to prosecute her case against Trump, that indicate Wade met with members of the Biden White House staff on multiple occasions.
Wade later voluntarily left Willis’ team earlier this year, when Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled either he or Willis must be removed from the case after their romantic relationship was exposed by defense attorneys.
As the private attorney was paid more than $600,000 to prosecute the case against Trump, prosecutors found credit card invoices revealing Wade spent thousands on luxury vacations he shared with Willis.
Willis and Wade separately testified their relationship was short-lived, and claimed Willis reimbursed Wade for the vacation expenses through unrecorded cash transactions or in-kind contributions to costs associated with traveling.
Trump’s attorneys have filed to ask a Georgia appeals court to drop Willis’ case against him, claiming the district attorney no longer has jurisdiction as Trump is set to be inaugurated the 47th president.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Image “DA Fani Willis” by Fulton County DA’s Office.
