Republican senators in Georgia are using a new state law designed to rein in rogue prosecutors to file a complaint against Democrat Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is prosecuting former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants on allegations of trying to subvert the state's 2020 election results.
The law, Senate Bill 92, signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in May, creates the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission, which can sanction or remove district attorneys for a range of causes, such as "willful misconduct" or "persistent failure" to follow the law.
The complaint, reviewed Monday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, was filed by a group of eight GOP senators that includes Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch, R- Dahlonega, and state Sen. Jason Anavitarte, R-Dallas, chair of the majority caucus.
The complaint claims Willis "improperly cherry-picked cases to further her personal political agenda" and asks the commission to initiate an investigation and take "appropriate measures" to sanction her.
"The integrity of our justice system is at stake, and the trust of the community in the District Attorney's Office has been severely eroded," said the complaint, which was filed hours after the law took effect Oct. 1.
The complaint does not specifically mention Trump, the Journal-Constitution reported, but it seeks to link a spate of deaths at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta to Willis' decision to "empanel a special grand jury to investigate her political adversaries" amid a years long backlog of cases.
Willis, who has criticized the law as racist and retaliatory, declined to comment to the Journal-Constitution through a spokesman.
Kemp, a big backer of the law who has frequently butted heads with Trump, criticized the timing of the charges.
"I haven't seen anything that she has done that has broken the law or the procedures that we have. And I've been very honest with people about that," Kemp said, the Journal-Constitution reported. "It may be a political action she's taken in some ways, with timing and other things, but it doesn't mean it's illegal."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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