WASHINGTON — House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan insisted Thursday that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis detail any contact with federal officials about her prosecution of former President Donald Trump as he prepares for his fourth arrest this year.
Jordan (R-Ohio) sent the demand to Willis, an elected Democrat, hours before Trump was scheduled to arrive in Atlanta to be booked into the county’s jail, where he will become the first president in US history to pose for a mugshot after avoiding that formality in his three prior criminal cases.
The five-page letter from Jordan, a staunch defender of Trump, lays out Republican pushback against Willis’ prosecution ahead of the Trump surrender and suggests that her case could be “designed to interfere with the 2024 presidential election,” in which the 77-year-old is the Republican frontrunner against President Biden.
The Georgia case accuses Trump and 18 co-defendants, including former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, of forming a criminal conspiracy to overturn President Biden’s narrow 2020 win in the Peach State.
“Given the weighty federal interests at stake, the Committee is conducting oversight of this matter to determine whether any legislative reforms are appropriate or necessary,” Jordan wrote.
“Such reforms could include changes to the federal officer removal statute, immunities for federal officials, the permissible use of federal funds, the authorities of special counsels, and the delineation of prosecutorial authority between federal and local officials.”
A bill proposed by Judiciary Committee member Rep. Russell Fry (R-SC) — the “No More Political Prosecutions Act” — would let former presidents and vice presidents transfer state criminal cases to federal courts so that elected partisans would not be able to charge leaders of the opposing party.
Jordan questioned the timing of the case, noting that press reports said Willis opened her investigation in February 2021.
“Yet, you did not bring charges until two-and-a-half years later, at a time when the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination is in full swing,” he wrote.
“Moreover, you have requested that the trial in this matter begin on March 4, 2024, the day before Super Tuesday and eight days before the Georgia presidential primary. It is therefore unsurprising many have speculated that this indictment and prosecution are designed to interfere with the 2024 presidential election.”
Jordan did not describe any evidence, but wrote that “there are questions about whether and how your office coordinated with DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith during the course of this investigation, and Congress has an interest in any such activity that involves federal law enforcement agencies and officials that fall under its oversight.”
Trump also faces two federal cases brought by Smith — one related to his attempts to reverse his election loss, and the other over his alleged mishandling of national security records after leaving office — as well as a case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in 2016 hush money payments.
Jordan, who also demanded records from Bragg, set a Sept. 7 deadline for Willis to provide “[a]ll documents and communications between or among the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office and DOJ and its components, including but not limited to the Office of Special Counsel Jack Smith, referring or relating to your office’s investigation of President Donald Trump or any of the other eighteen individuals against whom charges were brought in the indictment discussed above.”
He also asks for “[a]ll documents and communications between the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office and any federal Executive Branch officials regarding your office’s investigation of President Donald Trump or any of the other eighteen individuals against whom charges were brought in the indictment discussed above.”
The Georgia case could be the biggest threat to the former president yet because if he receives a prison sentence, the state’s governor can’t pardon him and he’d reportedly have to wait five years after completing his sentence before a state commission could review a clemency petition.
Willis’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.