Georgia
Obama-era ethics czar says Fulton prosecutor should quit Georgia 2020 election interference case – Georgia Recorder
A new Georgia State Senate special committee plans to investigate whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had an improper affair with a special prosecutor she hired to lead the sweeping criminal racketeering case filed against Donald Trump and 18 of the former president’s allies.
The committee tasked with investigating the lead prosecutor for Georgia’s most populated county was established Friday mostly along a party line vote on Republican Sen. Greg Dolezal’s Senate Resolution 465.
The panel that will consist of six Republicans and three Democratic senators will have the ability to subpoena witnesses to testify as it examines whether Willis misappropriated taxpayers dollars after hiring special prosecutor Nathan Wade in November 2021 to lead the election interference probe.
Democratic lawmakers on Friday called the committee a political stunt aimed at undermining Willis, an elected Democrat, for targeting Trump and his supporters on allegations that they illegally orchestrated a plot to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results.
“You’re talking about partisan politics,” Macon Democratic Sen. David Lucas said during Friday’s Senate floor debate.
The new committee is the latest twist surrounding the historic case since an attorney for Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign official and one of Trump’s Fulton co-defendants, accused Willis and Wade of having an improper romantic relationship.
Earlier this month, Wade’s estranged wife filed in Cobb County divorce court credit card statements showing two roundtrip flights to San Francisco and Miami had been purchased for Wade and Willis.
Dolezal, a Cumming legislator, described his resolution as a way of determining if the allegations against Willis are legitimate and whether she is impartial while leading a team of prosecutors.
Despite the committee’s subpoena power, it will not be able to sanction Willis.
“This resolution will empower the Senate to address the multitude of questions raised by Georgians regarding the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office,” Dolezal said last week prior to the adoption of the resolution. “I am eager to see its adoption, which will emphasize the importance of transparency, accountability and integrity within our judicial system,” he added.
The special investigatory panel represents another battle line between Georgia Republicans and Democrats in an election year when there is expected to be another showdown between Trump and President Joe Biden. This year’s election season includes all 236 seats in the state Legislature up for grabs.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Butts County Republican and longtime supporter of Trump, has a contentious relationship with Willis. She sought to indict Jones for serving on a false alternate slate of electors who cast votes for Trump in the 2020 election. However she was barred from charging Jones after a judge found she had a conflict of interest because she raised money for his opponent during the 2022 campaign for lieutenant governor.
Sen. Shawn Still was among the 19 people indicted in August in the election interference case for having served on the alternate electoral college slate.
Norm Eisen, former ethics czar under the Obama Administration, said that based on what is publicly known there is no legal basis under Georgia law for Willis or Wade to be disqualified.
Eisen noted the significance of holding Trump and his co-defendants accountable for their actions surrounding the 2020 election.
“However the right thing to do is for Mr. Wade to voluntarily bring his time on this case to an end – an act of wisdom on top of the strong record of court successes he’s helped create,” Eisen said last week. “He has taken this case far and has built a foundation for conviction that others can now take forward. Mr. Wade has done an outstanding job building the case, under the direction and active guidance of DA Willis.”
Republican legislators have also targeted Willis with the creation of a statewide prosecutors oversight commission that can investigate complaints filed against Willis regarding her decision to pursue racketeering charges against Trump.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has scheduled a Feb. 15 hearing to discuss the allegations that a romantic relationship constitutes prosecutorial misconduct that should prevent Willis from overseeing the election case in the future.
During a church service in Atlanta on Jan. 14, Willis strongly defended Wade’s professional reputation.
A former prosecutor, Wade has served as a Cobb County municipal judge for a decade and is a partner with an Atlanta firm that specializes in cases involving personal injury claims, family and domestic law, contract litigation and criminal defense.
Fulton County taxpayers have been billed more than $650,000 by Wade’s firm since November 2021.
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Georgia baseball will resume its NCAA Athens Regional game with Long Island at 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 29, after persistent rain—heavy at times—forced the suspension of the game.
The Bulldogs have a commanding 15-1 lead with nobody out in the bottom of the sixth.
The teams and some fans waited out a delay that started 7:14 p.m.
The game was suspended officially at 9:06 p.m. Long Island players were already grabbing their equipment in the dugout to depart for the team hotel before then.
The winner of Georgia-LIU will play No. 3 seed Liberty Saturday in the double-elimination tournament in a game scheduled for 5 p.m.
The loser will play No. 2 seed Boston College at noon.
The No. 3 national seed Bulldogs hit six homers before the game was delayed due to heavy rain.
There was a 53 percent chance of rain at 9 a.m. Saturday, according to weather.com, decreasing to 17 percent at 11 a.m., but there’s a threat of storms in the afternoon.
The Georgia Public Service Commission this week approved a plan expected to reduce utility bills for Georgia Power customers by a few dollars a month.
The commission said the change will generate about $285 million in total annual savings for Georgia Power customers, or roughly $50 per year — about $4.04 per month — for the average residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month.
The Georgia PSC voted Thursday to lower overall rates as part of the approved plan.
Georgia Power Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Tyler Cook said the decision will provide “real savings for Georgia families and businesses as the heat of summer begins and energy use increases.”
“At Georgia Power, our teams work every day to run our business efficiently and keep reliable and affordable energy flowing to our customers,” Cook said.
Cook said the outcome followed months of work between Georgia Power and PSC staff, including reviews, public hearings and input from residents and intervenors.
The approved plan is tied to a stipulated agreement reached earlier this month involving two cases filed with the PSC in February, the Fuel Cost Recovery case and the Storm Cost Recovery case. Those cases addressed recovering fuel costs used to generate electricity and expenses tied to restoring power after storms.
Georgia Power said its rates remain, on average, about 15% below the national average and that it is still on track to provide additional annual savings of about $102 per year for typical residential customers beginning in 2029.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Public Service Commission approved a stipulated agreement on Thursday to lower utility rates for Georgia Power customers starting June 1.
The regulatory body voted to pass the deal without changes, establishing how the utility can bill for fuel costs and storm damage restoration expenses.
State regulators approve rate cuts
What we know:
The Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) voted 3-2 to reject several utility cost amendments before ultimately passing the overall deal. Under the approved agreement, a typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours per month will see monthly bills decrease by roughly $4.03 to $4.04. Total annual savings across all 2.8 million Georgia Power customers are projected to reach approximately $285 million.
The deal reduces how much money the utility can recover from its customer base for storm expenses by nearly 60%, dropping the revenue requirement from $270 million down to $109 million. The agreement also extends the amortization of storm recovery costs, largely tied to Hurricane Helene in 2024, to 67 months, caps natural gas advance purchases at 20% over a 36-month window, and cuts $13 million from the company’s original fuel recovery estimates.
Accountability questions remain unresolved
What we don’t know:
While the PSC agreed to launch a separate investigation into how fuel costs are allocated, officials have not yet confirmed how much large industrial operations will be forced to pay in future rate cases. Consumer advocacy groups argue that massive data center companies are driving up fuel costs for everyday ratepayers without paying for the infrastructure upgrades they require. Critics note that it remains unclear if a future utility asset structure will successfully shift financial burdens away from residential homes.
The Source: The information in this story was gathered from official press releases issued by the Georgia Public Service Commission and Georgia Power, as well as previous FOX 5 Atlanta reporting.
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