Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis has been subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee as it investigates how Willis used federal grant funds.
As noted by NBC, the subpoena is part of an investigation by the committee and committee chair, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, into Willis and her efforts that culminated in charges against former President Donald Trump in connection with Trump’s pushback against the results of the 2020 election.
The letter from Jordan said that the committee had made three prior requests, all of which were ignored by Willis’s office.
“The Committee’s oversight of your office’s use of federal grant funds is particularly relevant in light of public whistleblower allegations that it has misused federal funding,” the letter said.
“According to a recent report, your office unlawfully ‘planned to use part of a $488,000 federal grant — earmarked for the creation of a Center of Youth Empowerment and Gang Prevention’ — to cover frivolous, unrelated expenses,” the letter continued.
“According to reporting about the whistleblower’s allegations, instead of using these federal grant funds for the intended purpose of helping at-risk youths, your office sought to use the grant funds to ‘get Macbooks, … swag, … [and] use it for travel.’
The letter said that the “whistleblower’s direct supervisor stated that these planned expenditures ‘were part of [your] vision.’”
“The whistleblower has stated that she warned you that the use of the federal grant funds in this manner was ‘impossible’ because the terms of the grant were ‘very, very specific.’”
Will this subpoena expose what’s happening in Willis’ office?
The letter noted that after the whistleblower made her claims, the whistleblower was fired and escorted out of the office by armed investigators.
“These allegations raise serious concerns about whether you were appropriately supervising the expenditure of federal grant funding allocated to your office and whether you took actions to conceal your office’s unlawful use of federal funds,” the letter said.
The letter noted that, although information requested in past letters was important, “in response to the recently disclosed whistleblower allegations and as an accommodation, we are prioritizing the production of documents concerning your office’s receipt and use of federal funds.”
“Accordingly, please find attached a subpoena for the requested documents and information,” the letter concluded.
The subpoena requires Willis to turn over “all documents and communications referring or relating to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office’s receipt and use of federal funds, including but not limited to, federal funds from the Department of Justice’s Office Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and Office of Community Oriented Policing Services,” according to Fox News.
In addition, documents “referring to or relating to any allegations of the misuse of federal funds” are requested by the subpoena.
Willis’s office responded with a statement.
“These false allegations are included in baseless litigation filed by a holdover employee from the previous administration who was terminated for cause,” the statement said. “The courts that have ruled found no merit in these claims. We expect the same result in any pending litigation.
“Any examination of the records of our grant programs will find that they are highly effective and conducted in cooperation with the Department of Justice and in compliance with all Department of Justice requirements. Our federal grant programs are focused on helping at-risk youth and seeking justice for sexual assault victims who were too long ignored. Our federal grant-funded Sexual Assault Kit Initiative has been cited by the United States Attorney General as a model program. We are proud of our grant programs and our partnership with the Department of Justice that makes Fulton County a safer, more just place,” the statement said.
