Tipsheet

Fani Willis Could Be Held in Contempt of Congress

Mia Cathell
Mia Cathell  |  March 14, 2024 3:15 PM

The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee, currently investigating the office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, is now threatening to hold her in contempt of Congress if she continues to refuse to cooperate with its investigation.

On February 2, Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) subpoenaed Willis after she repeatedly failed to comply with the committee's requests for documents related to her office's usage of federal funding allocated by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

The subpoena was sent in the wake of a whistleblower coming forward to accuse the Willis administration of squandering a DOJ grant — meant to be used for the creation of a youth advocacy center — on frivolous, unrelated expenses, such as "swag," MacBooks, and travel. The ex-employee was fired after sounding the alarm on the DA's office allegedly seeking to misuse taxpayer dollars.

In response, she called the subpoena "overbroad and unduly burdensome," prompted the committee to "engage" with the DOJ instead, and produced "a narrow set of documents," including duplicates, Jordan said in a letter Thursday addressed to Willis.

The congressional committee deemed her compliance to date "deficient" and noted she is not absolved of her legal obligation to comply. "While you have indicated that additional documents may be forthcoming in response to the Committee's subpoena, the Committee has yet to receive any additional responsive materials in the three weeks since your initial response," Jordan wrote.

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Specifically, the committee is demanding that Willis's office hand over all documents and communications related to the allegations of federal fund misuse, communications with the DOJ, internal communications among Willis staffers regarding federal grants, grant applications and agreements, and grant performance measurement and progress reporting documents.

Willis has until noon on March 28 to comply with the committee's list of demands. Failure to produce the records, Jordan warned, could result in the committee "taking further action" against her, including "the invocation of contempt of Congress proceedings."

Jordan said Willis had "smeared" the former Willis staffer who spoke out. "We will not dignify your attacks on this brave whistleblower, or your continued attempts to distract from your conduct through misdirection and personal insults," Jordan wrote.

For fiscal year 2020, the DOJ gave the DA's office a $488,000-plus federal grant to establish the Fulton County Center of Youth Empowerment and Gang Prevention "to work with boys and girls ages 12-17 who are at risk of joining gangs, were exposed to gang violence or victimized by criminal street gangs, or seeking assistance in removing themselves from gang activity," according to the award information outlined by the DOJ's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

This initiative was intended to "establish a community network...in Fulton County to identify and address service gaps and barriers and create a comprehensive system of service for youth at risk of becoming gang involved or continuing in the gang lifestyle." Services were supposed to include cognitive behavioral therapy and counseling. However, the center never opened.

Instead of using the federal funding to help at-risk youth, the DA's office sought to exploit the DOJ grant, says former Willis staffer Amanda Timpson. She recorded an implicating conversation with Willis when the pair privately met on November 19, 2021, to discuss her concerns about financial malfeasance in the administration. There, Willis didn't outright deny the accusations.

"I respect that is your assessment..." Willis replied. "And I'm not saying that your assessment is wrong."

Timpson said she was punitively demoted and taken off projects when she confronted her higher-ups. "I knew it was me against the entire office," she said. "If I didn't get any hard evidence about what I was saying, everyone was just going to write me off."

"I didn't even feel safe going to anybody," an emotional Timpson told Willis, audibly breaking down in tears.

Less than two months later, Willis abruptly terminated Timpson and had her escorted out of the office by a cadre of armed investigators, Timpson told The Washington Free Beacon. Timpson has since sued Willis for wrongful termination, alleging she was fired as retribution for uncovering the misappropriation plans and trying to stop a top Willis campaign aide in his tracks.

Willis is already embroiled in a salacious scandal involving special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she hired to helm the prosecution of former President Donald Trump in her now-crumbling Georgia RICO case and with whom she had an undisclosed affair. 

She stands accused of devising a self-enrichment scheme by awarding Wade "lucrative" county contracts, which earned him over $650,000 in taxpayer-funded income, and then taking luxury "vacations across the world" with Wade paid for by her lover.

Willis faces disqualification over the prosecutorial misconduct claims. A ruling on the matter should arrive by Friday.

Timpson pointed to "a pattern" of financial impropriety displayed in Willis's conduct.

"My case and Nathan Wade's case are very similar when you break them down point by point," the whistleblower told The Free Beacon, specifying: "Ethical violations, abuse of power, and the misuse of county, state, and federal funds."