Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Thursday rebuked House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan for his decision to investigate the Georgia election interference probe that led to the indictment of former President Donald Trump and 18 other defendants.
In a letter, Willis, a Democrat, accused Jordan, R-Ohio, of overstepping his congressional authority with his recent requests for information pertaining to her investigation.
Willis, who was responding to a letter Jordan sent in late August, said there is “no justification in the Constitution for Congress to interfere with a state criminal matter.”
Trump was charged in Fulton County last month with felony racketeering and numerous conspiracy charges in the 41-count indictment, which named a total of 19 defendants. Jordan announced that he was launching a congressional probe into Willis’ investigation shortly before Trump surrendered to the jail in Fulton County.
“The obvious purpose” of Jordan’s requests, Willis said, “is to obstruct a Georgia criminal proceeding and to advance outrageous partisan misrepresentations.” She said that his public statements and recent letter “make clear that you lack any legitimate legislative purpose for that inquiry.”
“Your job description as a legislator does not include criminal law enforcement, nor does it include supervising a specific criminal trial because you believe that doing so will promote your partisan political objectives,” she said.
“Your letter makes clear that you lack a basic understanding of the law, its practice, and the ethical obligations of attorneys generally and prosecutors specifically,” Willis added.
The district attorney then wrote that while “settled constitutional law” permits her “to ignore your unjustified and illegal intrusion into an open state criminal prosecution,” she would reply to some parts of his original letter.
Willis also said that if people want to avoid felony charges in Fulton County such as violations of the state’s racketeering, or RICO, laws, then they shouldn’t commit those felonies.
She wrote that Jordan’s questioning of the length of the investigation and timing of the indictment is “unfounded,” adding that he had no basis to imply that her office has inappropriately spent federal funds. She explained that her office receives federal grant funds from the Department of Justice and warned that if Congress were to block her office from that money, “you will be deciding to allow serial rapists to go unprosecuted, hate crimes to be unaddressed, and to cancel programs for at-risk children.”
Willis also listed a number of “suggestions for productive activity” by the Judiciary Committee, including that Congress should increase federal grant funds to allow for testing of untested rape kits and expand a program for children who are in trouble with the criminal justice system.
Finally, she said that since Jordan seems to have a personal interest in her office, “you should consider directing the USDOJ to investigate the racist threats that have come to my staff and me because of this investigation.”
Jordan’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
