Fani Willis Could Face Congressional Subpoena—Ex Prosecutor

A former prosecutor has suggested Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis could face a congressional subpoena after a lawyer assisting her in the Georgia election interference case met with White House officials.

Bill Shipley said allegations that special prosecutor Nathan Wade attended a meeting with government employees could be the subject of a subpoena because there “is no reason for him to have met with White House counsel.”

Wade is part of Willis’ team that brought a case against Donald Trump alleging he was engaged attempts to overturn the presidential election—charges the former president denies.

One of Trump’s 18 co-defendants, Michael Roman, brought a suit against Wade. He alleges Willis never had the authority to appoint Wade, and that the two personally benefitted from an alleged affair.

Willis previously rejected accusations against her without addressing the allegations directly.

Part of Roman’s 127-page filing, a bid to get the case against him thrown out, pertains to two 2022 meetings between White House employees and Wade and a bill the latter sent to the Fulton County district attorney’s office.

They are:

• May 23, 2022 – labeled “travel to Athens: Conf[erence] with White House Counsel” and amounting to $2,000.
• November 18, 2022 – an “interview with DC/White House.” Amounting to $8,000 at a rate of $250 per hour.

The requests were made under the project title “anti-corruption special prosecutor.”

Shipley argued on X, formerly Twitter, that a meeting between Wade and the DoJ would have been “plausible” because both have some “overlapping interest.”

But a meeting between White House counsel and Wade, however, was not legitimate, according to the former prosecutor.

“WH Counsel has no role in criminal prosecutions — they are there to give legal advice the President on a host of issues, political and otherwise,” he said.

Further to this, Shipley said he was yet to see anyone confirm if Willis also attended the meetings.

Speculating, Shipley said: “If she went too, that was probably paid for internally by her office budget. That information would need to be pulled out – maybe by a Congress subpoena?”

A congressional subpoena could be used by pro-Trump Republicans to gain information relating to Fulton County expenses and if they were used for Willis.

Trump has said the charges are politically motivated and that he has indicted under the direction of the White House. There is no evidence for this, but some of his supporters in Congress agree and could in theory be minded to issue a subpoena.

Newsweek has approached the Fulton district attorney’s office for comment via email.

“I respectfully disagree with the proposition that there was no reason for the state trial team to meet with the White House Counsel,” former Department of Justice (DOJ) litigator Gene Rossi told Newsweek.

“If there were issues of executive privilege and protective orders to discuss, then the role of the White House Counsel in having discussions with prosecutors would not be inappropriate.”

The DoJ has brought two criminal cases against Donald Trump, including charges in Florida regarding the alleged mishandling of classified documents, and counts in Washington, D.C., that Trump was engaged in a conspiracy to overturn the election.

Trump has also denied these charges and again says they are politically motivated.

Roman’s filing, meanwhile did not give any evidence of an alleged relationship between Willis and Wade, but cited “sources with knowledge.”

Open Records Complaint

News website Just the News said it had filed a complaint with Georgia Attorney General Christopher M. Carr, saying Willis’ office had not complied with a request with a three-day deadline under the Open Records Act, but that it had been told the request was being reviewed.

The news outlet said it had requested any records of communications or meetings between Willis and Wade and representatives from either the White House or DoJ.

John Solomon, the CEO and editor in chief of Just the News, said: “Georgia’s open records law is clear and has not been followed in the case of our request. Publicly available information currently suggests Fani Willis’ team had contact with the Biden White House, something that if true, would raise significant questions of public integrity.”

He added: “Securing these records are a matter of significant public interest. We look forward to the attorney general office’s intervention in this matter and also are considering additional legal options for securing this information for the public.”

Republicans in Georgia’s State Senate said on January 22 they plane to launch an investigation against Willis.

Trump Weighs In

Joining Roman’s suit, Trump has issued his own filing against Willis, saying she had “inappropriately injected race into the case and stoked racial animus.”

Earlier this month, addressed the Big Bethel AME Church in Atlanta, Georgia, ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. She called herself “flawed and imperfect” during an emotional speech, adding that she had faced death threats and experienced “loneliness.”

She suggested there was racial motivation behind the attacks on her.

“They only attack one. I hired one white woman: a good personal friend and great lawyer, a superstar, I tell you. I hired one white man: brilliant, my friend, and a great lawyer. And I hired one Black man, another superstar, a great friend, and a great lawyer.”