Fani Willis has been handed a "Get Out of Jail Free" card...for now.
Last week, the Fulton County Board of Ethics was set to hear two complaints filed against the Democrat DA. But, as the meeting convened Thursday, the ethics board decided last-minute not to consider the filings accusing Willis of prosecutorial misconduct.
The board's chairman, Daraka E. Satcher, a former Obama administration appointee, declared that they do not have jurisdiction over the ethics complaints because Willis is a state constitutional officer, not a county official subject to the local ethics code.
The Board of Ethics determined it lacked jurisdiction over Willis, who is an elected state officer, unable to be ethically reviewed by a county board. They noted the investigations going on at the state level. pic.twitter.com/3V8DGPiU3m
— Doug Reardon (@ReardonReports) March 7, 2024
"The Fulton County Code of Ethics, our code of ethics, only applies to 'county' officers and employees," Satcher reportedly said, reciting a prepared statement. The proper venue, instead, is a hearing before the Georgia State Ethics Commission, he stated.
Thursday's special meeting was not publicly live-streamed as they typically are, Townhall columnist Phil Holloway reported.
UPDATE: 🚨🚨🚨
— Phil Holloway ✈️ (@PhilHollowayEsq) March 7, 2024
This is the first meeting they have held without a live stream
Only in person
They changed the notice Tuesday….
One of the complaints—brought forward by Fulton County resident Steven Kramer—flags the luxury trips Willis took that were bought by her lover, Nathan Wade, whom she had hired to helm the prosecution of former President Donald Trump and his 18 allies in the sprawling Georgia RICO case. Willis awarded Wade "lucrative" contracts that have earned him over $650,000 in taxpayer-funded income for his years of work on the Trump case. Since his November 2021 appointment, Wade paid for "vacations around the world" with Willis, including trysts in Aruba, the Bahamas, and Belize, his credit card transactions show.
Kramer's ethics complaint says Willis failed to report Wade's purchases of plane tickets, Caribbean cruises, and hotels on financial disclosure reports in compliance with the county code (Section 2-79), which requires officials to disclose gifts of $100 or more from someone doing business with the county such as special prosecutor Wade, a contracted private-practice lawyer.
"There's a lot of money being spent, but not for the citizens of Fulton," Kramer told Real America's Voice host Grant Stinchfield
"It's our money, the taxpayers' money being wasted," Kramer added during the TV interview. "It's just very unethical."
Fulton County Republican Steve Kramer concisely making the case against Fani Willis tonight on @stinchfield1776 ! #gapol pic.twitter.com/WBXc9lA4Vi
— Josh McKoon 🇺🇸 🇹🇼 🇮🇱 (@JoshMcKoon) February 22, 2024
Kramer suggested Willis herself could be charged with RICO violations. "One could surmise that D.A. Willis, perhaps with the aiding and abetting of district attorney employees, could have turned the Fulton County District Attorney office into a criminal enterprise. Should the multiple crimes be proven, D.A. Willis, so fond of using RICO, could be its latest target by the Georgia Attorney General," Kramer's complaint says, adding: "Only an evidentiary hearing by the Board of Ethics will uncover the truth."
"The Fulton County Code of Ethics has been put into place for exactly the kind of behavior alleged [...] all I ask is that it be put to use fairly and without fear or favor. I respectfully submit this complaint to the Fulton County Board of Ethics in furtherance of seeking the truth, good government, transparency, ethics, and fiscal responsibility," Kramer's seven-page complaint concludes.
The other complaint—lodged by Gregory Mantell, founder of the Substack blog Investigative News Service—alleged that the DA's office unlawfully refused to release financial records related to Wade's invoices in violation of the state's Open Records Act.
Fulton County Board of Ethics cancelled its inquiry into Fani Willis' refusal to release financial records under Georgia's open records law. The nation's largest counties willingly released records about DOJ funding. We're filing complaint with GA senate & prosecutor commission pic.twitter.com/3tNsPenuxN
— Investigative News Service (@InvNewsServ) March 7, 2024
Mantell also requested access to Willis's expense reports, which the DA's office denied. On his website, Mantell claimed that the denial of his public records request was "an effort to cover up other actions by the DA" that raise ethical issues concerning conflicts of interest, "receiving expensive gifts from a contractor," and "issuing contracts that personally benefitted her." Willis violated "at least six sections" of the ethics code, Mantell wrote. "It may be easier to state which sections she hasn't violated."
The board's statement declaring that the county's Code of Ethics does not apply to Willis notes she is "part of the judicial branch of state government" and that her "position and powers are defined and derived from Article 6 of the Georgia State Constitution."
Section 2-67 of the Fulton County ethics code defines officers and employees as "any elected officer of the county" and "any person employed by the county." Willis "does not fall within the definition of a 'county officer' as defined in the ethics code," the board's statement says, while state law (O.C.G.A. §§ 21-5-2 and 21-5-4) specifically references its application to DAs statewide.
Board member Chris Miller stated he "would not go so far as to say this board is precluded from acting," in response to the ethics complaints. However, he agreed with the board's decision to remove the complaints from the meeting agenda because other officials in the legislative and judicial branches are already examining the DA's actions "with greater rigor and detail."
"It makes sense, therefore, that we elect to decline the chance to rule one way or another regarding her actions."
On X's platform, Georgia State University constitutional law professor Anthony Michael Kreis explained the jurisdictional issue:
The Fulton County Board of Ethics has jurisdiction over Fulton County government. The District Attorney is the District Attorney for the Atlanta Judicial Circuit. Though Fulton County coextensively constitutes the Atlanta Judicial Circuit, they are not the same constitutionally.
— Anthony Michael Kreis (@AnthonyMKreis) March 7, 2024
Even so, the stakes were small for the Fulton County district attorney. If the board had found Willis guilty of violating the county's ethics policies, she would've faced a reprimand plus a $1,000 fine, at most. Now, she got off scot-free, at least from this situation.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is already ahead of the game. The Georgia congresswoman previously filed two ethics complaints with the State Ethics Commission against Willis, stating she has flouted the state's campaign finance and ethics rules.
🚨🚨🚨
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) February 8, 2024
BREAKING: I just filed a second ethics complaint against Fani Willis.
Fani Willis’s failure to disclose luxury vacations allegedly paid for by her secret boyfriend using taxpayer money is a scandal of epic proportions.https://t.co/X6Ygfamtr6
Willis is additionally being investigated by a Republican-led Georgia state Senate special committee and the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, which has subpoenaed documents in possession of the DA's office after a whistleblower alleged that the Willis administration misused federal funds, blowing a $488,000 U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) grant on "swag," Macbooks, and travel. (The federal funding was supposed to finance an advocacy center for at-risk youth in the county, but it never opened.)
BREAKING: @FreeBeacon has obtained audio of a whistleblower privately warning Fani Willis in 2021 that her top aide was trying to misuse federal funds.
— Andrew Kerr (@AndrewKerrNC) January 31, 2024
Willis did not dispute the allegations.
56 days later, Willis fired the whistleblower and perp walked her out of the office. pic.twitter.com/YEkKIB2L5f
Also, a newly created oversight panel—the "Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission" tasked with disciplining "rogue" prosecutors in the state of Georgia who abuse their positions of power—could launch its own investigation into the DA's conduct.
Mantell told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he has since forwarded his complaint to the commission as well as the state Senate's investigative committee. The former is just awaiting the signature of Georgia's GOP Gov. Brian Kemp to begin its work.
Trump co-defendant Michael Roman's defense attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, whose motion to disqualify Willis exposed her affair with Wade, told the state senators investigating Willis that Section 15-18-20 of the Georgia code stipulates that DAs must receive county approval prior to employing additional personnel. Merchant said that the county never approved of Willis hiring Wade.
"Subsequently, we got a response from the district attorney's office that said, 'We didn't do it. We don't have to do it. I'm a constitutional officer' [...] It's her position now that she can spend that money however she wants..." Merchant said, "that they [the DA's office] have inherent authority. They don't have to comply with the county ordinances, don't have to comply with the statute."
Judge Scott McAfee, who's presiding over the disqualification proceedings, is expected to rule by March 15. McAfee announced at closing arguments he will make a decision whether or not to kick Willis off the Trump case within the next few weeks or so.
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