On August 24th Jim Jordan wrote Georgia Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis demanding that she account for indicting Donald Trump. The seven page letter spent much time attacking Willis’s alleged motives in the prosecution and concluded by demanding that her office produce records related to the case, internal communications about the case, and any communications between her office and any federal officials regarding the case.
Today Fani Willis responded, and it is pure gold. You can read it HERE.
Fani Willis treats Jordan’s demands with the contempt they deserve, accuses him of misrepresenting facts, corrects the facts, and makes absolutely clear that she is not impressed or intimidated by the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
The first substantive sentence of Willis’s letter is simply: “Your Attempt to Interfere with and Obstruction This Offices Prosecution of State Criminal Cases is Unconstitutional.” Pulling no punches, Willis asserts that the “obvious purpose” of Jordan’s letter is to “obstruct a Georgia criminal proceeding and to advance outrageous partisan misrepresentations.” She then quotes Jim Jordan’s own letter refusing to cooperate with the January 6 Committee investigation where Jordan said: “This unprecedented action serves no legitimate legislative purpose and would set a dangerous precedent for future Congresses... the America people deserve better.”
Willis cites the cases, including Supreme Court cases, making clear that state prosecutions are state business and federal officials are to keep their political noses out of them. These cases declare a “fundamental policy against federal interference with state criminal prosecutions.”
your letter seeks the revelation of non-public and privileged information concerning my office’s investigation and prosecution of a specific case. Your public statements and your letter itself make clear that you lack any legitimate legislative purpose for that inquiry: your job description as a legislator does not include criminal law enforcement, nor does it include supervising a specific criminal trial because you believe that doing so will promote your partisan political objectives.
Willis then addresses a real problem in MAGA world, reality, as she urges Jordan to accept reality.
Chairman Jordan, I tell people often, “deal with reality or reality will deal with you.” It is time that you deal with some basic realities. A Special Purpose Grand Jury made up of everyday citizens investigated for 10 months and made recommendations to me.
A further reality is that a grand jury of completely different Fulton County citizens found probable cause against the defendants named in the indictment for RICO violations and various other felonies. Face this reality, Chairman Jordan: the select group of defendants who you fret over in my jurisdiction are like every other defendant, entitled to no worse or better treatment than any other American citizen . . .
Here is another reality you must face: Those who wish to avoid felony charges in Fulton County, Georgia — including violations of Georgia RICO law — should not commit felonies in Fulton County, Georgia.
I should note that the bolded emphasis seen above is that of Ms. Willis and not added by me. Willis then addresses Jordan’s claims that Trump’s status as a candidate for President justifies Congressional oversight.
The basic premise of your letter is wrong. The criminal defendant about which you express concern was fully aware of the existence of the criminal investigation being conducted by the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office at the time he announced his candidacy for President. I have no doubt that many Americans are the subject of criminal investigations and prosecutions at any given moment. An announcement of a candidacy for elected office, whether President of the United States, Congress, or state or local office, is not and cannot be a bar to criminal investigation or prosecution. Any notion to the contrary is offensive to our democracy and to the fundamental principle that all people are equal before the law.
Okay, that time I added the emphasis. Willis makes clear that her duty is to the victims of the crimes, not to the criminals.
the defendants about whom you express concern have been indicted by a Fulton County Grand Jury. That indictment identifies victims. The State of Georgia’s Constitution and laws impose a duty upon me to protect, serve, and seek justice on their behalf. I will fulfill that duty in this case, notwithstanding your attempt to interfere.
Perhaps the best moment in the letter is on page 6 where Willis describes Jordan’s letter as reflecting “total ignorance” of RICO law and suggests that Jordan read a book amounting to a “RICO For Dummies” type thing.
Your questioning of the inclusion of overt and predicate acts by the defendants in the indictment’s racketeering count shows a total ignorance of Georgia’s racketeering statute and the basics of criminal conspiracy law. Allow me the opportunity to provide a brief tutorial on criminal conspiracy law, Chairman Jordan.
As I explained to the public when announcing the indictment, the overt and predicate acts are included because the grand jury found probable cause that those acts were committed to advance the objectives of a criminal conspiracy to overturn the result of Georgia’s 2020 Presidential Election.
For a more thorough understanding of Georgia’s RICO statute, its application and similar laws in other states, I encourage you to read “RICO State-by-State.” As a non-member of the bar, you can purchase a copy for two hundred forty-nine dollars [$249].
Willis then explains why the investigation took so long. It was because some witnesses, like Lindsey Graham, refused to cooperate and took challenges to courts and appeals. She strikes with the snark again suggesting that:
If you are sincerely interested in improving federal law, I encourage you to make it incumbent upon your Congressional colleagues to cooperate with lawful investigations without requiring intervention by the highest court in the land.
Jordan demanded an accounting of how her office spent any Federal funds it received, so she told him. They included funds for prosecuting sexual offenders and assisting their victims, funds for programs to help at risk children, hate crime programs and programs to reduce violence. Willis concludes:
If you and your colleagues follow through on your threats to deny this office federal funds, please be aware that you will be deciding to allow serial rapists to go unprosecuted, hate crimes to be unaddressed, and to cancel programs for at-risk children. Such vengeful, uncalled for legislative action would impose serious harm on the citizens we serve, including the fact that it will make them less safe . . . Those are the sort of joint federal-state initiatives that you and your colleagues are threatening to “defund” because you are offended that a select group of people have been indicted.
Willis concludes with a suggestion that if Jordan wants to do something constructive in the advancement of justice he “should consider directing the USDOJ to investigate racist threats that have come to my staff and me because of this investigation.” She provides copies of such threats for his review. That’s a nice way of suggesting that rhetoric such as Jordan’s have contributed to those threats. She concludes by pledging to:
keep the promise of my oath to the United States and Georgia Constitutions and do not allow myself to be bullied by Members of Congress, local elected officials, or others who believe lady justice should not be blind and that America has different laws for different citizens.
The emphasis in that quote again was mine. Folks that there is what we used to call a “FO Letter.” I’ll let you figure out what “FO” means, but the O stands for “off.” In my time as an attorney I had occasion to write some FO letters myself, but never to a Member of Congress.