Fulton County DA Fani Willis ordered to turn over records of Georgia Trump investigation

Bill Rankin, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Dec 3, 2024

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ATLANTA — A Fulton County judge has ordered the Fulton District Attorney’s office to turn over documents from its election interference investigation that were sent to Special Counsel Jack Smith and the U.S. House Jan. 6th Committee.

On Monday, Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ordered the DA’s office to turn over the documents to Judicial Watch, a conservative nonprofit in Washington, within five business days.

“Judicial Watch looks forward to getting any documents from the Fani Willis operation about collusion with the Biden administration and Nancy Pelosi’s Congress on her unprecedented and compromised ‘get-Trump’ prosecution,” Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said in a statement.

The Fulton DA’s office referred the matter to the County Attorney’s Office, which represented Willis in the lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch. County Attorney Soo Jo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In August 2023, the DA’s office obtained a racketeering indictment against President-elect Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants, although four of them have since entered guilty pleas. The case is now on hold while the Georgia Court of Appeals considers whether the DA’s office should be disqualified because Willis had a romantic relationship with former special prosecutor Nathan Wade.

On the same month the Fulton indictment was handed up, Judicial Watch filed an Open Records Act request with the DA’s office seeking records it sent to the special counsel’s office and the House committee. When the county attorney’s office said the DA’s office did not have them, Judicial Watch filed suit this past March.

In a six-page order, McBurney found that because the county attorney’s office had not met the filing deadline to respond to the lawsuit, the DA’s office must be found to have violated the Open Records Act.

Moreover, McBurney found the office is in default and must turn over to Judicial Watch any records that are not legally exempted from disclosure under the act within five business days. The act shields records from being disclosed if they are part on an ongoing investigation.

McBurney also set a Dec. 20 hearing to decide how much Fulton County must pay Judicial Watch in attorney fees.

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