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DA Fani Willis In Hot Water, Loses Legal Case Related To Trump Prosecution

By Updated: COURT

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is now at the center of an escalating legal conflict after a Georgia judge ruled in favor of Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog organization, in a lawsuit seeking access to her office’s communications with Special Counsel Jack Smith and the House January 6 Committee. Judge Robert McBurney of the Fulton County Superior Court made the decision following Willis’s office’s failure to timely respond to Judicial Watch’s open records request. The court issued a default judgment against Willis, compelling her to comply with Georgia’s open records laws and provide the requested documents within five business days.

Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit in March 2024, alleging that Willis had violated the Georgia Open Records Act. The request aimed to obtain records related to communications between Willis, Special Counsel Jack Smith—who was overseeing federal investigations connected to January 6—and the House January 6 Committee. Judicial Watch contended that Willis’s office incorrectly asserted that no such records existed.



Willis’s office responded late Monday by asserting that no records involving Special Counsel Jack Smith existed and citing legal exemptions to withhold communications with the January 6 Committee. Nonetheless, the judge’s ruling now mandates her office to conduct a more exhaustive search and provide justifications for any documents they choose to withhold.

The court order states: “By finding the Defendant in default, the Court has effectively declared that she violated the ORA [Open Records Act]. The Court further ORDERS the Defendant to conduct a thorough search of her records for responsive materials within five business days of this Order’s entry. Within the same five-day period, the Defendant is ORDERED to provide the Plaintiff with copies of all responsive records that are not legally exempt or excepted from disclosure. If the Defendant must or chooses to withhold any portion of a requested record, she is instructed to adhere to the procedures outlined in the ORA.”

The situation intensified when Willis missed crucial deadlines to respond. Although Judicial Watch properly served the lawsuit on March 11, 2024, Willis’s office did not submit a response within the mandated 30-day timeframe. In April, Judicial Watch then sought a default judgment. Willis claimed that confusion over court docketing and orders caused the delays, but the judge rejected these justifications. By now claiming that the records sought by Judicial Watch don’t exist, Willis has opened herself up to potential perjury charges if in fact such documents do exist and she has simply refused to provide them.

A key element of the lawsuit is a December 2021 letter from Fani Willis to Bennie Thompson, who was then the Chairman of the House January 6 Committee. In this letter, Willis indicated her willingness to cooperate with the committee and offered to travel to Washington, D.C., if necessary. Judicial Watch asserts that this correspondence demonstrates that Willis’s office had engaged in discussions with federal entities regarding January 6-related issues, thereby contradicting their earlier claims that no such records existed.

“Judicial Watch and a state court forced Fani Willis to confirm additional documents exist about her collusion with the partisan Pelosi January 6 Committee to ‘get Trump,’” said JW President Tom Fitton. “But Willis, citing legal exemptions for a prosecution that’s essentially dead in the water, now wants to hide these records from the American public. Judicial Watch plans to push back in court against this disingenuous secrecy.”





Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.