Left: Fani Willis during a hearing on the Georgia election interference case on March 1, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alex Slitz, Pool). Right: Jack Smith speaks about an indictment of former President Donald Trump on Aug. 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File).
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is violating Georgia open records law by refusing to turn over documents related to her communications with special counsel Jack Smith and the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, a lawsuit alleges.
In the 16-page filing, conservative government accountability group Judicial Watch accuses Willis, and broader Fulton County, of making “likely false” representations about the retention of such documents.
“Fani Willis and Fulton County seem to have provided false information about having no records of communications with Jack Smith and the Pelosi January 6 committee,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a Wednesday press release announcing the lawsuit.
On Aug. 22, 2023, the watchdog group filed an open records request for all “documents and communication sent to, received from, or relating to” Smith, any employees in his office, and the House committee investigating the pro-Donald Trump riots at the U.S. Capitol.
After the request was acknowledged, Fulton County sent a reply stating they “do not have the responsive records,” the lawsuit says.
On March 5, the right-wing watchdog group filed the lawsuit in Fulton County Superior Court, alleging later-in-time information shows such records, at least to a limited extent, are in Fulton County’s possession.
Willis has previously communicated with then-Jan. 6 committee chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., in at least one letter, the lawsuit notes.
In December 2021, Willis sent Thompson, as head of the committee, a letter about her then-nascent racketeering (RICO) and election subversion investigation into the 45th president and others.
That letter reads, in part:
As you may be aware, I am conducting a criminal investigation of possible attempts to illegally interfere with the administration of Georgia’s 2020 General Election. Through news reports, we are aware that your committee has interviewed witnesses relevant to our investigation. We understand from the same reports that your committee’ s investigators may have collected records relevant to our investigation.
Please accept this letter as an official request from me for access to records that may be relevant to our criminal investigation. Those record include but are not limited to recordings and transcripts of witness interviews and depositions, electronic and print records of communications, and records of travel.
It may well be most efficient for your staff and effective for our understanding for my staff and me to meet with your Investigators In person. We are able to travel to Washington any time between January 31, 2022 and February 25, 2022. We will do our best to accommodate the schedule of the committee.
More Law&Crime coverage: ‘Something to hide’: Fulton County unlawfully withholding public records in Trump RICO case about DA’s hiring of special prosecutor she is allegedly seeing romantically, lawsuit says
The Willis letter to Thompson was flagged late last year by Republicans House Judiciary Committee Chair Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
Judicial Watch says the existence of the letter shows Willis and Fulton County failed to comply with the open records request.
“Willis’ letter to Chairman Thompson is plainly responsive to the request, yet it was neither produced to Plaintiff in response to the request nor claimed to be subject to exemption from production under the Open Records Act,” the lawsuit reads.
Citing a Politico report, the lawsuit also alleges that some members of Willis’ staff traveled to Washington, D.C., to confer with the House Jan. 6 committee in April, May, and November 2022.
“Such meetings plainly had to be coordinated and likely generated communications if not other records about or memorializing these meetings,” the lawsuit goes on. “Any such records also would be responsive to Plaintiff’s request. Accordingly, despite its representation to Plaintiff that it possessed no records responsive to the request, on information and belief the County and Willis possess such records but have failed to produce them. At no point did Defendants represent to Plaintiff that any records it possessed were exempt from production under the Open Records Act.”
The lawsuit seeks production of the disputed documents, a declaration that Willis and Fulton County violated the law, an injunction to stop withholding such documents, and attorneys fees.
Law&Crime reached out to Willis for comment on this story but no response was immediately forthcoming at time of publication.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
