Thursday, July 28, 2022

Georgia DA Has Been Struck Down By Two Courts. It's Not Enough

Two courts are limiting Georgia county prosecutor Fani Willis’s use of a special grand jury to interrogate Republicans about the 2020 election

  • In January 2022, Fulton County District Attorney sought authorization of a “special purpose grand jury” to investigate “any coordinated attempts to unlawfully alter the outcome of the 2020 elections in this state.”
  • The grand jury began receiving evidence in June 2022 and has already issued subpoenas to several high profile Republicans including Lindsey Graham, John Eastman, Jenna Ellis, Cleta Mitchell, and Kenneth Chesebro.
  • On Monday, however, a Fulton County judge held that “this District Attorney and her special prosecution team may no longer investigate Senator Jones” and may not subpoena him.

While the special grand jury has no power to indict, Willis branded Jones a "target"

  • She has the Republicans in her sights, and she is searching for a crime
  • The public process serves as a political gift to her fellow Democrats
  • Any public criminal investigation into Senator Jones plainly benefits candidate Bailey's campaign, of which the District Attorney is an open, avid, and official supporter
  • This investigation benefits the entire Democrat Party, as well as Willis's political future within her party
  • A federal district court in Georgia handed Willis another setback when the court ruled on Republican Rep. Jody Hice's motion to quash Willis's subpoena
    1. McBurney barred Willis and her special prosecution team from investigating Jones because on June 14, 2022, “well after the grand jury had begun receiving evidence from witnesses called and examined by the District Attorney’s team of prosecutors, the District Attorney hosted and headlined a fundraiser for [Charlie] Bailey.” At the time, Bailey was in a run-off contest to be the Democrat nominee for lieutenant governor to run against Jones in the November 2022 general election.
    2. She also was one of the faces of the Bailey fundraiser announcement: it prominently featured the District Attorney’s name, photo, and title and was widely shared on Bailey’s campaign’s social media outlets.” Thus Willis had bestowed her office’s imprimatur upon Senator Jones’s opponent,” the court explained, stressing that “since then, she has publicly (in her pleadings) labeled Senator Jones a ‘target’ of the grand jury’s investigation.” The court then concluded that this “scenario creates a plain—and actual and untenable—conflict,” and therefore Willis and her prosecution team must be disqualified from investigating Jones.
    3. In January 2022, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis sought authorization of a “special purpose grand jury” to investigate “any coordinated attempts to unlawfully alter the outcome of the 2020 elections in this state.” On May 2, 2022, the special purpose grand jury was selected and sworn in, and then in June, it began receiving evidence.
    4. Two courts are limiting Georgia county prosecutor Fani Willis’s use of a special grand jury to interrogate Republicans about the 2020 election, but the Fulton County Democrat’s political witch hunt continues with subpoenas still outstanding targeting Sen.
    5. Monday’s ruling by the federal court in Hice’s case also suggests problems for Willis in her attempt to force Graham to testify at all before the special grand jury because Willis had limited her claimed interest in Graham’s testimony to two specific conversations he allegedly had with Raffensperger.

https://thefederalist.com/2022/07/27/georgia-democrat-prosecutor-has-been-slapped-down-by-two-courts-now-but-its-not-enough/ 

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