Fulton County District Lawyer Fani Willis is hiding information of communications with the January 6 Committee after a court docket discovered her in default.
The Fulton County Superior Courtroom on Tuesday discovered Fani Willis in default for refusing at hand over paperwork in an open information lawsuit.
Fani Willis refused to reply a public information lawsuit in search of information of her communications with Particular Counsel Jack Smith.
Earlier this yr, conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch asked the Superior Courtroom of Fulton County, Georgia to declare a default judgment in opposition to Fani Willis after she refused to answer its lawsuit associated to communications she had with Jack Smith and the sham January 6 Committee.
Final yr, Home Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan launched an investigation into whether or not Fulton County District Lawyer Fani Willis coordinated with federal officers throughout her years-long probe into Trump and his associates.
Chairman Jordan in his letter to Fani Willis requested all paperwork and communications between or among the many Fulton County District Lawyer’s Workplace and DOJ and its parts, together with however not restricted to the Workplace of Particular Counsel Jack Smith, referring or regarding your workplace’s investigation of President Donald Trump or any of the opposite eighteen people in opposition to whom expenses had been introduced within the indictment.
In referring to Jim Jordan’s letter to Fani Willis, Judicial Watch filed a Georgia Open Information Act request in search of information of her communications with Jack Smith.
Based on Judicial Watch: The court docket ordered Willis “to conduct a diligent search of her information for responsive supplies inside 5 enterprise days of the entry of this Order. Inside that very same 5 day interval, Defendant is ORDERED to supply Plaintiff with copies of all responsive information that aren’t legally exempted or excepted from disclosure.” [Emphasis in original] Willis’ workplace responded with zero personal paperwork:
Members of the District Lawyer’s employees having carried out a search as directed by the Courtroom, the Workplace supplies the next response to Plaintiffs requests:
Concerning “[a]ll paperwork and communication despatched to, obtained from, or regarding Particular Counsel Jack Smith or any staff in his workplace,” a diligent search signifies that no such paperwork or communications exist.
Concerning “[a]ll paperwork and communication despatched to or obtained from the USA Home January sixth Committee or any of its staff,” a diligent search signifies that any such paperwork and communications are “legally exempted or excepted from disclosure” below O.C.G.A. §§ 50-18-72(a)(4), 50-18-72(a)(41) and 50-18-72(a)(42). Per the route of the Superior Courtroom’s Order, the Workplace informs the Plaintiff that the information are exempted/excepted from disclosure as a result of they arose from the investigation, subsequent indictment, and prosecution in case quantity 23SC188947; are topic to attorney-client privilege; and are confidential work product. Because of this, they’re information in a pending, ongoing prison investigation and prosecution.
Judicial Watch reported:
Judicial Watch introduced at present that District Lawyer Fani Willis refused to launch any personal paperwork in response to a court docket order discovering her in default for failing to answer a Judicial Watch lawsuit in search of information of communications Willis had with Particular Counsel Jack Smith and the Home January 6 Committee. Late yesterday night, Willis’ Open Information Division denied any information about Jack Smith existed and cited a sequence of authorized exemptions to justify the withholding of communications with January 6 Committee. The Willis workplace did launch one, already public, letter to January 6 Committee Chairman Benny Thompson.
The March 2024 lawsuit was filed within the Superior Courtroom of Fulton County, GA, after Willis and the county denied having any information attentive to an August 2023 Georgia Open Information Act request for communications with the Particular Counsel’s workplace and/or the January 6 Committee (Judicial Watch Inc. v. Fani Willis et al. (No. 24-CV-002805)).
In its lawsuit Judicial Watch acknowledged that Willis’ “illustration about not having information attentive to the request is probably going false.” Judicial Watch referred to a December 5, 2023, letter from Home Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan to Willis that cites a December 2021 letter from Willis to then-Home January 6 Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS). In that letter Willis requested help from the committee and provided to journey to DC.
“Judicial Watch and a state court docket pressured Fani Willis to substantiate further paperwork exist about her collusion with the partisan Pelosi January 6 Committee to ‘get Trump,’” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton stated. “However Willis, citing authorized exemptions for a prosecution that’s basically lifeless within the water, now needs to cover these information from the America public. Judicial Watch plans to push again in court docket in opposition to this disingenuous secrecy.”