The chairman of a Georgia Senate committee says he will subpoena Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis if she refuses to appear before the panel that is investigating accusations of misconduct against the prosecutor pursuing felony charges against former President Donald Trump and his allies.
On Friday, Fulton County Chairman Robb Pitts, Chief Financial Officer Sharon Whitmore, and County Attorney Soo Jo testified at a four-hour committee hearing at the Georgia State Capitol about the degree of autonomy constitutional officers like district attorneys have, as well as recent changes county officials have made to close ethical and financial reporting loopholes for those elected officials.
The county officials said on Friday that they updated a county code in April to close loopholes that allowed Willis to avoid getting county approval before hiring Nathan Wade in November 2021 as special prosecutor in the 2020 presidential election interference case.
Willis has dealt with a hit to her public image since January after it was revealed that she had a romantic relationship with Wade while he led a case that in August resulted in felony racketeering charges against Trump and 18 co-defendants, who are accused of trying to illegally overturn the 2020 election.
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Athens Republican Sen. Bill Cowsert, chairman of the special investigation panel, said on Friday he hopes Willis will appear voluntarily before a state Senate panel that is investigating allegations that Willis committed prosecutorial and financial misconduct.
Willis cannot be sanctioned by the Senate committee, but it can subpoena her to turn over evidence and to testify under oath. Former Gov. Roy Barnes, who declined Willis’ offer to serve as special prosecutor in 2021 in the case against Trump,, attended Friday’s hearing with plans to serve as legal counsel for Willis if she is subpoenaed.
“She’s a key part of the investigation that her viewpoints are valued by us,” Cowsert said. “We need to hear what she has to say and her explanation of what she thinks are the appropriate rules ought to be going forward so we don’t have this kind of scandal give Georgia a black eye.”
The first public accusations that Willis and Wade were romantically linked became public in January in a motion filed by an attorney for Trump co-defendant, Michael Roman, who argued that Wade and Willis’s undisclosed relationship was used to improperly financially benefit by prosecuting the sweeping election interference case.
In April, the Fulton County Commission updated its ethics and anti-nepotism policies to cover elected officials like the district attorney. Under the new rules, all constitutional officers must report any gifts valued at $100 on their financial disclosures. Willis would have been prohibited from having a personal relationship with someone she supervises under the expanded anti-nepotism policy.
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Cowsert asked Fulton County Attorney Soo Jo if she agreed with his interpretation of the state law, which would seem to imply that Willis would need permission from the County Commission in order to hire an independent contractor such as Wade.
According to Jo, previous court rulings have interpreted the law as allowing district attorneys to appoint and determine compensation for special assistant district attorneys without the county board’s consent.
According to Jo, disputes over finances and control usually turn into a tug-of-war between constitutional offices and local elected officials, who set the budget but must also cover shortfalls and legal ramifications.
“I do believe there are some practical and legal challenges for all counties and elected officials who are in and in between state where you have independence, but you depend on the county for finances,” Jo said.
Cowsert on Friday recommended state legislators consider implementing a statewide policy that addresses tensions between county commissioners and constitutional officers over how much discretion and autonomy they should have.
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“We need to have a state law that provides ethical guidelines for prosecutors, for sheriff’s, for clerks of court, for tax commissioners,” Cowsert said. “They are not county officers, but they need to have accepted norms of conduct and ethical guidelines. It’s our job in the state government to come up with that from the state level.”
Pitts said that the Fulton commission should be able to have more control since the board sets the multimillion dollar budgets.
Pitts said that he agrees with prosecutors having the right to determine which cases their office will prosecute, including sweeping racketeering cases like the one Willis is pressing against Trump and his co-defendants. However, he said, he believes that the county officials who set the budget should have similar financial control over elected officials like the sheriff, district attorney. tax commissioner, probate court judge and superior court clerks as they have with other local departments.
Pitts said that he and other county commissioners were unaware of Willis hiring Wade until it was reported by local media.
“We give millions of dollars and I think as an elected official with a fiduciary responsibility that I should have the right to know how the money is being spent,” Pitts said following Friday’s committee hearing.
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Willis told a crowd at a community outreach event in Atlanta on Friday that she finds it interesting that the Republican majority Senate is attacking her credibility at a time when more Black people like herself are being elected as district attorneys in Georgia.
This year, Willis is seeking a second term as district attorney. Her biggest challenge will be in the May 21 Democratic Party primary when she faces Christian Wise Smith, a Democrat who’s served as Atlanta city solicitor and as a Fulton County prosecutor. The winner of the Democratic primary will have a significant advantage in the November 5 general election in a match up against Courtney Kramer, a self-described MAGA attorney who has worked in the Trump White House. Kramer faces an uphill battle in heavily Democratic Fulton.
Willis said prosecutors and law enforcement have been working closely as part of an increased emphasis on locking up violent criminals and outreach programs that led to a significant drop in Atlanta’s crime rate this year.
“They can look all they want,” Willis said in a video footage taken by several Atlanta news outlets on Friday. “The DA’s office has done everything according to the books. We are following the law.”
“I can prosecute high profile cases and I can prosecute every day cases when they need to be prosecuted,” Willis later said.
The scandal surrounding Wade and Willis relationship garnered national headlines as hundreds of thousands of people watched live streams of Wade and Willis testifying at a February hearing on motions from Trump and co-defendants seeking to disqualify Willis from the election interference case on grounds of prosecutorial misconduct.
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Willis has denied any allegations of professional misconduct and misappropriation of government money. Both Wade and Willis testified during a February Superior Court hearing that they did not become romantically involved until several months after Wade was hired as a special prosecutor in November 2022 and that they stopped dating in the following summer.
But critics of Willis not disclosing having a personal relationship have accused the two of taking advantage of Wade being paid about $750,000 by Fulton by splurging on vacations that included a Caribbean cruise and touring wineries in California. To cover her share of vacation expenses, Willis testified that she paid Wade several thousand dollars in cash in order to cover her share of vacation expenses.
Four of the co-defendants pleaded guilty to various charges in the case, while Trump and the remaining 14 defendants have pleaded not guilty.
A Georgia Court of Appeals is expected to render a ruling by May 13 whether to grant a motion byTrump and several of his co-defendants asking the court to review Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee’s decision to allow Willis to remain on the case following Wade’s resignation. In the March 3 ruling, McAfee wrote that Willis actions showed a tremendous lapse in judgment, however the defense was unable to prove there was conflict of interest that warranted dismissing the case.
Sen. Harold Jones, an Augusta Democrat, said that Friday’s lengthy committee meeting was a waste of time, arguing Fulton’s government website and a few follow up questions could have answered a most of the senator’s questions.
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“There’s nothing that you learned as far as the state senate committee is concerned except maybe now we’re about to start having constitutional officers just change the way they do their budget, a process that has been in effect for over 30 years,” Jones said. “I want all constitutional officers to realize that apparently the Georgia State Senate is about to change the law because of one event to happen in Fulton County,” Jones said.
A Georgia college student was shot dead by an ‘armed intruder’ on Saturday
The incident occurred at 4pm local time triggering a shelter-in-place on campus
The suspect has now been arrested and is no longer considered a threat
By Alice Wright For Dailymail.Com
Published: | Updated:
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A Georgia college student has been shot dead by an ‘armed intruder’, officials confirmed on Saturday.
‘Kennesaw State officials can confirm that a female student was fatally shot on campus,’ the university said in an alert posted to its website.
The college confirmed that a suspect has been detained and that there is ‘no threat to the campus community.’
The incident occurred around 4pm local time triggering a shelter-in-place on campus.
The order was lifted around 4:45pm but advised students to ‘avoid the South Campus Housing area due to police activity.’
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‘Kennesaw State officials can confirm that a female student was fatally shot on campus,’ the university said in an alert posted to its website on Saturday
Kennesaw State University Police are working with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, according to the university.
This is the second emergency alert put out this year due to an armed intruder at the college, WSB-TV reported.
Students and staff were put under a shelter-in-place order for hours during a January incident in which a person with a gun was reported on campus.
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Female Georgia college student is shot dead by ‘armed intruder’ causing shelter-in-place alert before police arrest suspect
President of Georgia Salome Zourabichvili on Friday vetoed a controversial “foreign agents” law that has been decried as “Russian-style” legislation and has sparked massive protests in the country.
Zourabichvili took to her Twitter account to announce the veto, saying, “Today, I vetoed the Russian law. This law, in its essence and spirit, is fundamentally Russian, contradicting our constitution and all European standards. It thus represents an obstacle to our European path.” Zourabichvili said the veto was legally sound because the law was not “subject to any changes or improvements.”
Georgia’s parliament adopted the controversial law on May 14th, which would have designated civil society organizations that receive funding from abroad as “foreign agents.” The law, which is known as the Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence, would require any organization in Georgia that receives more than 20% of its income from foreign sources to register as a foreign agent.
The adoption by parliament sparked widespread protests as critics viewed the bill as directly inspired by Russia and said the government was trying to isolate Georgia from the rest of the world. The backlash has been so severe that several Georgian officials have stepped down in protest, most notably Gotcha Javakhishvili, the current ambassador to France.
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The legislative process has spurred local protests and provoked the ire of international advocacy groups, which argue the law stifles civil society and fundamental freedoms. Marie Struthers, Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty International, stated the law “contravenes Georgia’s international obligations on the rights to freedom of expression and association and strikes at the heart of civil society’s ability to operate freely and effectively.”
Georgia softball advances to the second round in the NCAA Athens Regional after defeating UNCW 8-0 on Friday afternoon.
The Bulldogs will face Liberty at 11 a.m. Saturday on ESPN+. The Lady Flames defeated Charlotte in game one Friday afternoon 6-3.
Since this is a double elimination tournament, the winner of Georgia’s second round matchup will head to the finals and the loser will get one more shot at glory at 6 p.m. against the winner of UNCW/Charlotte’s 3:30 p.m. game.
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The winner of the entire Athens Regional will advance to the Super Regionals against the winner of the Los Angeles Regional, which houses national No. 6 seed UCLA, Grand Canyon, San Diego State and Virginia Tech.
This is the second time Georgia has hosted back-to-back regionals, dating back to the triple host gig they had between 2014-2016. It is the 23rd straight NCAA Tournament made by Georgia, not including the canceled 2020 season. Georgia had advanced to last year’s super-regional rounds. The Bulldogs have advanced to the Women’s College World Series five times, last in 2021, never bringing home the title.
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