House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan on Monday released the transcript of closed-door testimony from Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor hired by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to help manage her office’s Donald Trump election interference case before coming under scrutiny for his romantic-financial relationship with Willis.
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Local election officials in Georgia cannot delay or refuse to officially certify election results, according to a state court ruling on Monday.
“Election superintendents in Georgia have a mandatory fixed obligation to certify election results,” wrote Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney in the ruling. “Consequently, no election superintendent (or member of a board of elections and registration) may refuse to certify or abstain from certifying election results under any circumstance.”
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is seeking to block former special prosecutor Nathan Wade from testifying before Congress, arguing he might “improperly divulge confidential information.”
In a letter released Monday to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio., the Georgia attorney said that Wade’s testimony could violate protected privileges that are upheld by the Fulton County District Attorney’s office.
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The Georgia State Election Board has faced backlash and lawsuits over the last few months, especially after passing a number of election rules just weeks before Election Day.
The Republican-majority board had a win this week though when a Fulton County judge dismissed a lawsuit on Wednesday put forward by Democrats.
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The Georgia State Election Board voted to subpoena Fulton County’s 2020 election records amid a legal fight over election monitors.
The board voted 3-2 on Tuesday to subpoena all election records from the 2020 election in Fulton County, the Associated Press reported. The vote came a day after Fulton County filed a lawsuit claiming that the board does not have the authority to make the county “accept, and Fulton County to pay for, additional monitors for the 2024 election that have been hand-picked by certain State Election Board members.”
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis defied a subpoena Friday issued by a Georgia state senate committee investigating her alleged misconduct.
Rather than testify before the committee, Willis is scheduled to attend the annual legislative conference for the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, D.C. An agenda for the Georgia Senate Special Committee on Investigations hearing stated Willis would provide “sworn testimony,” but state Republican Sen. Bill Cowsert began the meeting by announcing Willis would not appear.
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Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee on Thursday dismissed two counts against former President Donald Trump in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s election case.
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The Georgia State Election Board (SEB) on Monday adopted a rule that requires the number of ballots and voters be the same before the certification of election results.
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Municipalities across the country trying to meet the demands of collecting and tabulating election ballots with their set workforce have resorted to hiring temporary workers, which has contributed to election irregularities and security concerns.
Such issues surfaced last month in Arizona’s Maricopa County and have been seen in other county or city governments including Detroit, Florida’s Orange County and Georgia’s Fulton County over the prior two election cycles.
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The assistant police chief of the Memphis Police Department (MPD) is reportedly still registered to vote and resides in Atlanta, Georgia after nearly three years since accepting the position in Memphis, according to a report by ABC 24.
Atlanta is approximately 400 miles away from Memphis, which is a nearly six-hour drive.
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Donald Trump’s former DOJ official, Jeffrey Clark, is fighting a recommendation from the D.C. Bar’s disciplinary panel to discipline him over his concerns about illegalities in the 2020 election. Last month, he filed a Post-Hearing Brief challenging a nonbinding preliminary finding of culpability for drafting a letter that was never sent to Georgia officials advising them of their options in dealing with the irregularities.
The hearing panel found that Clark engaged in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation and conduct that seriously interferes with the administration of justice, Rules 8.4(c) and (d) of the Rules of Professional Conduct. Those ethics rules have been accused of being broad, vague, and unconstitutional. State bars frequently use them to target conservative attorneys.
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The Georgia Court of Appeals officially put the racketeering case against former President Donald Trump’s case on hold.
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A new campaign ad for District Attorney Fani Willis says that Fulton County is safer now than it was four years ago. However, year-end data from the Atlanta Police Department shows that crime rates have increased in southwest Atlanta and that car theft continues to skyrocket. Willis released the campaign ad on Monday.
In a post on the X platform, the campaign ad for Willis, currently running for re-election, states, “The last four years, we’ve made Fulton County safer for everyone — and we’re just getting started.”
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As Fulton County officials reportedly consider a sales tax to fund a $1.7 billion Fulton County Jail replacement, some groups have an idea to save taxpayers money: keeping people out of jail.
The Georgia Senate Public Safety Subcommittee on Fulton County Jail is preparing to file a report with recommendations that could guide legislative action when lawmakers return to Atlanta next year. WSB-TV reported county officials plan on asking state lawmakers to allow a new sales tax to pay for a jail replacement.
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A Georgia lawmaker alleged during a hearing that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis spends taxpayer dollars “like the Wild West” and has misused public funds.
“This is sounding to me kind of like the Wild West, very little control from Fulton County over a $36 million budget,” State Sen. Bill Cowsert said after questioning Fulton County Commissioner Robb Pitts and Fulton County Chief Financial Officer Sharon Whittmore about how Willis’ office receives and spends its funds.
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The Georgia State Ethics Commission referred Fulton County Commissioner Khadijah Abdur-Rahman to Attorney General Chris Carr after the commission determined she likely used campaign money for personal expenses, a Tuesday report exposed.
Abdur-Rahman, who is an ally of District Attorney Fani Willis, allegedly made purchases or payments with campaign funding to Dollar Tree, Title Max, Georgia Power, and a chiropractor, according to Fox 5 Atlanta.
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Georgia State Representative Mesha Mainor (R-Atlanta) confirmed on Friday she filed a lawsuit against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and other officials over an alleged failure to correctly prosecute a man she claims stalked and violently assaulted her.
In addition to Willis, the lawsuit by Mainor names the district attorney’s office, Fulton County, the Fulton County Ethics Board and Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington as defendants.
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis opted to skip her first debate Sunday ahead of early voting in the Democratic primary to instead host a “self-care fair” for crime victims, according to Fox 5 Atlanta.
Willis’ absence left her Democratic challenger, Christian Wise Smith, debating an empty podium, Fox 5 Atlanta reported. Willis, who appointed her romantic partner Nathan Wade to work on the case against former President Donald Trump and allowed him to pay for vacations they took together, was sharply criticized by Judge Scott McAfee in a March decision that did not grant defendants’ request to disqualify Willis but did require Wade to step down.
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The office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is once again under fire from a judge as prosecutors face the possibility of court on the weekend due to an alleged failure to make timely court filings in the Young Slime Life trial.
Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville raised his voice at a member of Willis’ office during court on Wednesday, with the judge threatening defense attorney Max Shardt and Fulton County Assistant District Attorney Adriane Love with court on the weekends over the case’s slow progress.
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The Democrat challenging Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee claimed the incumbent is under “tremendous” pressure due to the Georgia case against former President Donald Trump brought by District Attorney Fani Willis.
Robert Patillo, the former executive director of the Rainbow PUSH social justice group started by Reverend Jessee Jackson who is now challenging McAfee, made the remarks in a Wednesday interview with WSB-TV.
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The disciplinary trial of Donald Trump’s former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark wrapped up on Thursday with the D.C. Bar’s disciplinary panel making a nonbinding preliminary determination that Clark was culpable on at least one of the two counts against him.
For drafting a letter that was never sent to Georgia officials advising them of their options in dealing with the 2020 election illegalities, he was charged with engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation, and engaging in conduct that seriously interferes with the administration of justice, Rules 8.4(c) and (d) of the Rules of Professional Conduct.
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The second and final week of the disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former DOJ official began to wind down on Wednesday with more testimony from operations security expert Harry Haury. Clark, who is also a defendant in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ RICO prosecution, is being disciplined for drafting a letter that was never sent to Georgia officials after the 2020 election advising them of their options for dealing with the election illegalities.
The trial is expected to wrap up on Thursday with closing statements.
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The disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former DOJ official, Jeffrey Clark, continued into its second and final week on Tuesday, featuring testimony from three witnesses for him.
Clark, a defendant in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ RICO prosecution, is being disciplined for drafting a letter never sent to Georgia officials after the 2020 election advising them of their options for dealing with the election illegalities.
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The second week of the disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former DOJ official, Jeffrey Clark, resumed its second week on Monday. Clark, who is also a defendant in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ RICO prosecution, is being disciplined for drafting a letter that was never sent to Georgia officials after the 2020 election advising them of their options for dealing with the election illegalities.
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis invoked race in her first public speech since Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee cautioned her about invoking race during a previous speech delivered from the pulpit of an Atlanta church.
The district attorney made the remarks about race at the South Fulton Women of the Shield Awards on Friday, stating, “It’s hard out here always having to prove yourself two and three times.”
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is reportedly seeking to begin the Georgia trial of former President Donald Trump before voters head to the polls in November.
After Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee determined that Willis could stay on the Trump case so long as she parted ways with her former lover and special prosecutor Nathan Wade, CNN reported that multiple sources close to the district attorney claim she intends to take the former president’s case to trial soon as possible.
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Just as predicted, Judge Scott McAfee tried to cut the baby in half, but the baby died, because his split-the-difference opinion makes absolutely no sense legally or factually.
It is obvious that Judge McAfee started his decision-making process by deciding the result he wanted: disqualifying special prosecutor Nathan Wade, but retaining Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her entire office. In order to reach that bizarre result, he had to rely on the testimony of Willis, which he knew was totally untruthful.
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The Fulton County judge overseeing the Georgia 2020 election case dismissed some charges against former President Donald Trump on Wednesday, although other charges remain.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said six charges listed in the indictment must be quashed, including three counts against Trump, per court documents.
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Fulton County officials on Monday claimed records that reportedly show special prosecutor Nathan Wade was paid using funds from confiscated property are a “clerical error” on behalf of the county government.
Multiple Fulton County spokesmen, including a member of Willis’ office, offered explanations to Newsweek when the publication asked about records it obtained that showed Wade was paid using the county’s confiscated property funds.
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Tom Pappert, reporter for The Georgia Star News and lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, said he believes diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies were part of the explanation as to how Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, special prosecutor Nathan Wade, and attorney Terrance Bradley were hired into positions of influence.
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The LockBit hacker group that seized control and temporarily stopped many Fulton County government services resurfaced just four days after an international intelligence operation seized many of the group’s servers in a bid to disrupt its activities.
A rambling message by the group’s pseudonymous leader upon the launch of LockBit’s new website claims that Operation Cronos, the international police action against the hackers, was launched due to documents the organized crime outfit obtained about the Fulton County trial of former President Donald Trump.
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday announced the “disruption” of a Russia-based hacking and ransomware group that targeted Fulton County last month as the result of a joint operation that involved both the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and “international law enforcement partners in London” to seize the group’s infrastructure.
In its press release, the DOJ announced “the disruption of the LockBit ransomware group, one of the most active ransomware groups in the world,” which came as the result of “seizing numerous public-facing websites used by LockBit to connect to the organization’s infrastructure and seizing control of servers used by LockBit administrators.”
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A Fulton County policy regarding the disclosure of a romantic relationship with an employee may have applied to both District Attorney Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade, yet they testified that they did not inform any county employees of their relationship, according to lawyers observing the case.
A hearing was held on Thursday and Friday regarding Willis’ relationship with Wade and the resulting potential conflicts of interest regarding the case against former President Donald Trump. Willis last year indicted Trump and 18 co-defendants over his efforts to challenge the 2020 election results in Georgia. She had hired Wade as a special prosecutor to pursue the case.
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis did not respond to a request for information from a Fulton County commissioner relating to allegations she misused county funds as of late Friday night.
Fulton County Commissioner Bob Ellis said Willis had not responded to his Jan. 19 request for information about whether or not county funds were “misused” by Willis. Ellis set a Friday deadline for Willis to respond, according to a letter provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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Trump co-defendant Michael Roman’s attorney poked holes Friday in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ defense to corruption allegations leveled against her.
Willis admitted Friday that she was involved in a relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who she appointed to work on the case against former President Donald Trump, though she denied she benefited financially and suggested the judge reject Roman’s motion to disqualify her without a hearing. Co-defendant Michael Roman responded by posing various questions that will be raised during cross examination, suggesting witness’ testimony would contradict Willis’ assertions during a hearing.
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The Merchant Law Firm, which represents defendant Michael Roman, launched a lawsuit on Monday claiming Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, through her office, is “stonewalling” their defense team by refusing to comply with public records requests for invoices from special prosecutor Nathan Wade, contracts for other contracted prosecutors in her office, and an account of her vacation time.
Roman is a defendant in Willis’ case against former President Donald Trump, and the law firm behind the lawsuit claims Willis’ office continues to slow-walk the release of information that was originally requested by his attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, on September 1.
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The Fulton County commissioner who wants to increase District Attorney Fani Willis’ budget by over $9 million recently cost taxpayers thousands by losing a sexual discrimination lawsuit brought by her former chief of staff.
A judge ruled earlier this month that Commissioner Natalie Hall sexually discriminated against her former chief of staff Calvin Brock, ordering the county to provide Brock backpay from September 2020 with interest, along with attorneys fees and $65,00 in damages, Fox 5 Atlanta reported on Jan. 12. Hall is proposing adding $9.7 million to the District Attorney’s budget, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported Monday.
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A District of Columbia Bar disciplinary panel held a pretrial hearing last month to prepare for the upcoming disbarment trial against President Donald Trump’s former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark. Clark (pictured above) is also being prosecuted in Georgia and is an unindicted co-conspirator in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s federal prosecution, due to a letter Clark drafted to Georgia election officials after the 2020 election advising them of options the Georgia Legislature could take to address the concerns about election illegalities. The letter was never sent nor circulated.
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A federal appeals court on Monday rejected a bid from former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to move his Georgia election case from state to federal court.
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Former President Donald Trump has expanded his lead over President Joe Biden in Georgia, according to a new CNN-SRSS poll, which suggests the current president is struggling with voters in key demographics.
The poll showed Trump winning with 49 percent of the vote, while just 44 percent of voters said they would vote for Biden. The polling was conducted between November 30 and December 7, and pollsters reported a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percent.
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Georgia State Senator Joshua McLaurin (D-Sandy Springs) called for embattled Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat (D) to resign on Monday in response to the “crisis” at the Fulton County Jail.
McLaurin cited Labat’s recent controversies, which include allegations he used the jail’s Inmate Welfare Fund as a “slush fund” and questions about why medical bracelets purchased from a company tied to Georgia legislators were not being used at the facility, before calling for his resignation.
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The feds are sending Georgia more than $1.8 billion for fiscal 2024 for a slate of infrastructure projects, a federal lawmaker said.
The money is part of the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
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Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee signed a protective order on Thursday to seal sensitive evidence in District Attorney Fani Willis’ racketeering case against former President Donald Trump following the leak of proffer videos earlier this week. However, McAfee adopted the protective order submitted by former Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer, one of the co-defendants in the case, instead of the more restrictive order submitted by Willis on Tuesday.
He explained that Willis first requested a protective order on September 27, but Shafer and nine other defendants informed the court they were negotiating the details of a joint protective order with prosecutors. The negotiations apparently reached an impasse by October 5, but remained ongoing as of October 16, according to McAfee’s order.
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While Fulton County, Ga., initially missed a box of early voting ballots during tabulation of last Tuesday’s election results, the county has a history of election issues since at least 2020. Fulton County, which includes Atlanta and is the most populous Georgia county, has experienced issues with ballot counting, voter rolls, and lawsuits over elections.
On Tuesday, the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections (BRE) has acknowledged “some batches” of absentee in-person ballots were missed from the Nov. 7 elections, but later found during the recount.
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Sixty one individuals were arraigned on Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) charges on Monday as part of a racketeering case tied to an alleged criminal conspiracy related to protests of Atlanta’s new Public Safety Training Center.
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Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled Friday the Georgia Secretary of State’s office must submit a new motion to quash a request from Harrison Floyd, who subpoenaed the government agency for information related to the 2020 election. Floyd’s attorney claims Georgia’s state agencies have information that will prove the 2020 elections in Fulton County and Georgia were fraudulent, which in turn will confirm his client’s innocence at trial.
Floyd is the former director of Black Voices for Trump, and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis included him in her racketeering case against former President Donald Trump. She claims he tried to coerce a false confession from a Georgia election worker who former Trump campaign lawyer Rudy Giuliani accused of counting fraudulent ballots.
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The disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former attorney and constitutional legal scholar, John Eastman, finished a partial ninth week on Tuesday, as the renowned former law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas explained how he thought fraud occurred in the 2020 election. The State Bar of California is attempting to disbar him over advice he gave Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence regarding accepting electoral slates from states suspected of election fraud.
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The eighth week of the disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s attorney and constitutional legal scholar John Eastman wrapped up on Friday, featuring more testimony by Eastman as well as three of his character witnesses. Eastman discussed the evidence he relied upon when he gave Trump advice regarding what to do about the possibility there was cheating in the 2020 election, including official reports from the Georgia General Assembly, the Georgia State Election Board, and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s office.
Eastman’s attorney Randy Miller asked him about a Nov. 13, 2020 report that the Georgia State Election Board had Seven Hills Strategies prepare about problems in the 2020 election, which Eastman said he’d relied on. It discussed chain of custody issues surrounding ballots and the integrity of their transportation, lack of transparency, lack of access for Republican Party monitors, and incompetency by election officials. California Disciplinary Judge Yvette Roland, who contributed to Democrats while serving on the bench, refused to let him discuss it.
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Another letter sent by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) to U.S. Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH-04) was obtained by the media on Thursday. In the letter, Willis again rebuked Jordan’s requests for information about her case against former President Donald Trump, and denied the U.S. Constitution gives Congress oversight of her work.
In her letter, which is dated October 11, Willis accused Jordan of either being “ignorant of the United States and Georgia Constitutions and codes” or using his “authority as Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary to attempt to obstruct and interfere” with her case against Trump.
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A new report published Tuesday reveals Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office has repeatedly failed to charge alleged criminals within a 90-day window from their arrest, forcing judges who previously denied them bail to renege and grant it, with at least 20 separate instances identified by 11 Alive.
Georgia law requires those who are arrested and refused bail to be formally indicted within 90 days, or else given bail, and 11 Alive claims court documents prove the county has failed to do this nearly two dozen times.
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