Willis faces probe under new law
GOP senators in Georgia file ‘rogue’ prosecutor complaint
ATLANTA — Georgia Senate Republicans filed a formal complaint to punish Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis after she sought charges against former President Donald Trump, under a new law aimed at sanctioning “rogue” prosecutors.
The complaint contends Willis “improperly cherry-picked cases to further her personal political agenda” and asks the newly formed Prosecuting Attorneys Qualification Commission to initiate an investigation and take “appropriate measures” to sanction her.
“The integrity of our justice system is at stake, and the trust of the community in the District Attorney’s Office has been severely eroded,” states the complaint, which a group of eight state senators submitted hours after the law took effect Oct. 1.
The Republicans don’t specifically mention Trump in the complaint, but they sought to link a spate of deaths in the Fulton County Jail to Willis’ decision to “empanel a special grand jury to investigate her political adversaries” amid a years-long backlog of cases.
Willis, who has criticized the law as racist and retaliatory, declined to comment through a spokesman. But she has long said that she can balance the high-profile trial with the other demands of her office.
The complaint sharpened an already deep rift over Trump among state Republicans.
Gov. Brian Kemp, a chief sponsor of the law, has repeatedly said there’s no evidence Willis should face any sanctions by the commission for bringing the indictment against Trump and his allies alleging they participated in a “criminal enterprise” to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Kemp, however, has criticized the timing of the charges.
“I haven’t seen anything that she has done that has broken the law or the procedures that we have. And I’ve been very honest with people about that,” Kemp said in a recent interview. “It may be a political action she’s taken in some ways, with timing and other things, but it doesn’t mean it’s illegal.”
But the GOP-controlled state Senate has forcefully broken from that approach. Senate leaders encouraged their constituents to file complaints with the commission against Willis shortly after she announced the indictment in August.
And last week, Senate Republicans launched a probe into dangerous conditions at the Fulton County jail that is expected to scrutinize Willis’ handling of the backlog that worsened during the coronavirus pandemic.
The document, reviewed Monday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, was filed by a group that included Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch and state Sen. Jason Anavitarte, another high-ranking Republican in the chamber.
The complaint contends that Willis has “prioritized cases that align with her political party’s interests” rather than basing decisions on the merits of each case. And it invokes the 10 inmates who have died in Fulton County custody in the past year.
“Her selective prosecution has resulted in dangerous, deadly, and unjust overcrowding in the local jail and an unprecedented backlog of cases in the judicial system,” the complaint states. “These consequences are unacceptable and detrimental to our state.”
Though the indictment has reverberated throughout the Gold Dome, the charges have particularly rocked the Georgia Senate.
State Sen. Shawn Still, a first-term Republican, was charged in connection with his role as a GOP elector after he signed a false certificate claiming Trump won Georgia in the 2020 presidential election. Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, the chamber’s president and also a Trump elector, could also be indicted. Both have said they did nothing wrong.
Many rank-and-file Republicans have faced immense pressure from Trump allies to reprimand Willis, even if it’s symbolic.
Some of the furor has been stoked by state Sen. Colton Moore, who has singled out his GOP colleagues for refusing to back his push to impeach Willis.
Two of the complaint’s supporters — state Sens. Shelly Echols and Bo Hatchett — were repeatedly targeted on social media by Moore, who was ousted from the GOP Senate caucus last month. Hatchett said the “most alarming thing, for me, is the selective prosecution.”
“She is selecting politically motivated cases to go after while at the same time neglecting a huge backlog that’s unsustainable and dangerous,” Hatchett said. “It appears that she has neglected her duties as a prosecutor while focusing on a few politically motivated cases.”