Government

Jim Jordan Can Start Shit, But DA Willis Is Gonna Finish It

FAFO.

By  
on
Fulton County GA District Attorney Fani Willis

(Photo by David Walter Banks/Getty Images)

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is not about to take shit from Jim Jordan.

On August 24, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee sent the DA a nastygram questioning her “motivation” for indicting Donald Trump and 18 co-conspirators for their efforts to interfere with the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Rep. Jordan suggested that there was some kind of nefarious coordination between the DA and Special Counsel Jack Smith, and claimed a legislative right to oversee her investigation.

It’s not the first time the congressman has run this ploy. Before Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Trump for producing false business records, Jordan sent him a similar letter, demanding detailed information on the ongoing investigation. DA Bragg told him to pound sand, and, while he was unsuccessful at blocking testimony by his former deputy Mark Pomerantz, appears to have largely fended off Jordan’s attempt to interfere with the state prosecution.

DA Willis, a savvy media operator, has taken a different tack. Knowing that  Jordan’s real “job” is not legislating but rather “owning” the news cycle, she responded with a letter which is guaranteed get headlines.

Noting the limits on congressional oversight authority, she calls out Jordan’s attempt “to obstruct a Georgia criminal proceeding and to advance outrageous partisan misrepresentations.”

“There is absolutely no support for Congress purporting to second guess or somehow supervise an ongoing Georgia criminal investigation and prosecution,” she goes on, accusing him of violating basic principles of federalism. “That violation of Georgia’s sovereignty is offensive and will not stand.”

Sponsored

And that was the cordial introduction!

Willis impugned the congressman’s motives:

Your public statements and your letter itself 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.

Talked to him as if he were a particularly obnoxious middle school student:

Chairman Jordan, I tell people often “deal with reality or reality will deal with you.” It is time that you deal with some basic realities. A Special Purpose Grand Jury made up of everyday citizens investigated for 10 months and made recommendations to me. A further reality is that a grand jury of completely different Fulton County citizens found probable cause against the defendants named in the indictment for RICO violations and various other felonies. Face this reality, Chairman Jordan: the select group of defendants who you fret over in my jurisdiction are like every other defendant, entitled to no worse or better treatment than any other American citizen.

Sponsored

And she tweaked him for being a law school graduate who never bothered to sit for the bar exam and apparently forgot anything he ever learned at Capital University Law School:

For a more thorough understanding of Georgia’s RICO statute, its application and similar laws in other states, I encourage you to read “RICO State-by-State.” As a non-member of the bar, you can purchase a copy for two hundred forty-nine dollars [$249].

She went on to remind the congressman that the federal money he’s threatening to withhold in retaliation for prosecuting Trump funds DNA tests of rape kits and hate crimes prosecutions. So perhaps threatening to defund her office would be a bad look.

She ends the missive by noting that, as he has a “personal interest in the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office,” he should consider using his influence to get the DOJ to “investigate the racist threats that have come to my staff and me because of this investigation.”

She attached multiple examples “to give you a window into what has happened to my staff and me as I keep the promise of my oath to the United States and Georgia Constitutions and do not allow myself to be bullied and threatened by Members of Congress, local elected officials, or others who believe lady justice should not be blind and that America has different laws for different citizens.”

Translation: This woman eats death threats for breakfast, and she’s not about to be cowed by some blowhard congressman from Ohio.

Willis blasts congressman’s ‘interference’ in Fulton Trump probe [AJC]

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics and appears on the Opening Arguments podcast.

Topics

, , ,