DA Fani Willis skips hearing as senators note Legislature's subpoena power

ATLANTA — Senate committee heard testimony Friday from two attorneys who argued the panel has the authority to issue and enforce subpoenas as it investigates Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

The veteran prosecutor had received a subpoena to appear at the hearing from the Senate Special Committee on Investigations, but did not attend. Her attorney continued to challenge the summons in court.

Willis’ legal team, led by former Gov. Roy Barnes, is asking a Fulton judge to halt enforcement of the subpoenas as it argues that the committee did not have the statutory authority to issue the summons. Barnes has also contended that the panel’s requests are overly broad and violate the constitution’s separation of powers, as Willis is a state constitutional officer.

The legal fight is expected to heat up in coming weeks in Fulton Superior Court, where multiple judges have recused themselves. Judge Shukura Ingram currently has the case and held a brief status hearing via Zoom Friday afternoon, not long after the Senate hearing adjourned.

The court battle will be a novel one. The Legislature’s subpoena power has never been tested under Georgia law.

Still, the legislators heard Friday from Legislative Counsel Stuart Morelli and David Cook, the recently retired secretary of the Senate, who argued the GOP-led committee didn’t overstep its authority when it subpoenaed Willis last month.

“I don’t think there’s any question at all that there’s been a full grant of the Senate’s inherent power to this committee to investigate and to do whatever it seems necessary and proper to compel the production of testimony and documents,” said Cook.

Sen. Bill Cowsert, the Athens Republican who leads the committee, has vowed to enforce the subpoenas in court. He declined to speak to reporters after the hearing and senators huddled with their attorney, Josh Belinfante.

Cook testified that the committee could enforce its subpoena powers through statute, judicial enforcement or by declaring Willis in contempt of the legislature. He acknowledged the latter wouldn’t work since the General Assembly adjourned in March.

Morelli walked the lawmakers through relevant state statutes and court decisions that he said bestowed the committee power to investigate the conduct of any state official in any branch of government.

In addition to Willis’ testimony, lawmakers are seeking documents related to the DA’s relationship with former deputy Nathan Wade. They have requested every email and text between Willis and Wade over the last five years; an accounting of gifts, money and items of value Willis and Wade exchanged; information about federal grants the office has received; and communications between Willis, her staff and the White House, Justice Department and U.S. Congress about Willis’ 2020 election interference case.

Willis did not produce documents before the committee’s Sept. 6 deadline, according to a source with knowledge who was not authorized to speak on the record.

The committee was created earlier this year as nine defendants in the election interference case, including former President Donald Trump, sought to disqualify the Democrat from the prosecution because of her past romance with Wade, the special prosecutor she had hired to oversee the case.

The panel’s leadership says it is examining whether Willis had any conflicts of interest or misspent any public funds, including during vacations with Wade. Cowsert said he is considering legislation that would regulate district attorneys’ conduct more broadly, as well as the use of special grand juries and special prosecutors — but that he wanted to hear directly from Willis first.

Sen. Harold Jones, the committee’s top Democrat, told reporters following the hearing that the GOP majority was focused on the wrong set of issues.

“This is definitely a political endeavor,” he said, noting that the legislature didn’t look into past allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. “What the other side is actually trying to do is serve former President Trump.”

Barnes has argued that only the ethics committees or both chambers of the General Assembly acting together can enforce a subpoena.

“We look forward to presenting our legal arguments and the complete lack of a legislative purpose for actions of the State Senate Committee,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The misuse of legislative time and taxpayer money for a purely political purpose is unprecedented in the history of Georgia.”

After questioning Morelli and Cook for 90 minutes, Cowsert in the final moments of the hearing asked a doorman to check to see if Willis was waiting outside the committee room.

She was not.