Reaction & Commentary
A Georgia judge ordered Fulton County District Attorney Fani Williams to hand over records related to her communications with special counsel Jack Smith and the U.S. House January 6 Committee after failing to comply with a request under the Open Records Act (ORA).
The nonprofit group Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against Willis in March after her office claimed it did not have any documents and communications on file between Willis and Smith or Willis and the January 6th Committee.
But it turned out her office did have communications, and on Monday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ordered Willis to produce them within five business days. McBurney also determined in his ruling that Willis violated Georgia’s open records act by failing to respond to Judicial Watch’s lawsuit.
McBurney granted judgment by default after the DA did not make any ‘meritorious defense.’ Instead, Willis claimed she was not served properly.
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis testifies during a hearing in the case of the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump at the Fulton County Courthouse on February 15, 2024, in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer-Pool/Getty Images)
“Plaintiff is thus entitled to judgment by default as if every item and paragraph of the complaint were supported by proper and sufficient evidence,” McBurney wrote in his decision, while also ordering her to pay Judicial Watch’s attorney’s fees. “Here, this means Plaintiff has established that Defendant violated the ORA by failing to either turn over responsive records or else notify Plaintiff of her decision to withhold some or all such records.”
A hearing on the attorney’s fees and costs is set to take place on Dec. 20, 2024 at 10 a.m.
“Fani Willis is something else. We’ve been doing this work for 30 years, and this is the first time in our experience a government official has been found in default for not showing up in court to answer an open records lawsuit,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. “Judicial Watch looks forward to getting any documents from the Fani Willis operation about collusion with the Biden administration and Nancy Pelosi’s Congress on her unprecedented and compromised ‘get-Trump’ prosecution.”
The documents Judicial Watch sought to obtain stemmed from an investigation by the House Judiciary Committee into whether Willis coordinated with the House Jan. 6 Committee in their investigations.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis speaks in the Fulton County Government Center during a news conference, Aug. 14, 2023, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)
U.S. lawmakers had said Willis asked the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 to share evidence with her office.
Last year, President-elect Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty to all charges in connection to a racketeering indictment for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Specifically, Willis charged Trump with one count of violation of the Georgia RICO Act, three counts of criminal solicitation, six counts of criminal conspiracy, one count of filing false documents and two counts of making false statements.
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis arrives to speak after winning the Democratic primary on Tuesday, May 21, 2024, in Buckhead, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Four of the defendants who were charged alongside Trump took plea deals in exchange for testifying against the other defendants.
Trump’s team and other defendants had previously asked the Georgia Court of Appeals to hold oral arguments to determine whether Willis could continue to prosecute the case.
The charges against Trump have not officially been dropped, though the case is on pause as Trump and his co-defendants appeal a Fulton County judge’s decision to not disqualify Willis from prosecuting the case.
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The Court of Appeals canceled the arguments in November, which were initially scheduled for early December.
Fox News Digital’s Haley Chi-Sing contributed to this report.
