Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is under renewed pressure from Republicans in Congress to provide records tied to her faltering racketeering case against President Trump and 18 co-defendants.
This week, the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee issued letters to members of Willis’s staff seeking testimony and documents related to potential coordination between her office and the now-defunct House January 6 committee. If Willis fails to comply, a subpoena may follow.
Willis had previously written to January 6 committee chairman Bennie Thompson—who co-led the panel with Congresswoman Liz Cheney—requesting records from its investigation, including transcripts, communications, and travel documentation. Those findings later featured in both Special Counsel Jack Smith’s federal indictment of Trump and the committee’s final report, which expressed confidence in securing a conviction.
Willis has long resisted House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan’s efforts to investigate her ties to the January 6 committee, accusing the probe of disregarding constitutional limits on congressional authority. In February, she pushed back in a letter to Jordan, calling his inquiry a “complete waste of your time” and claiming he was “confused” about his oath of office.
Willis has also faced multiple legal setbacks. In December, the Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified her from continuing to prosecute the Trump case, describing the situation as one in which no remedy short of removal would restore confidence in the proceedings. She is now appealing that decision to the state’s supreme court, which has the discretion to review it or leave the disqualification in place.
Separately, Willis has been ordered to pay over $75,000 in attorneys’ fees for violating Georgia’s open records laws in two lawsuits brought by Judicial Watch. The group’s records requests, which concern the same communications with the January 6 committee that Jordan is now targeting, were unlawfully denied according to state courts.
She may also soon be subject to oversight by a court-appointed special master tasked with ensuring compliance with those records requests. Although Willis argues that such an appointment would be “unprecedented” and “overly intrusive,” Judge Robert McBurney has said he will weigh that step based on the volume of records to be reviewed.
Willis is facing additional scrutiny in her home state. Georgia Senate Republicans subpoenaed her last September as part of a separate probe. She has sought to block that subpoena in court, but Fulton County judges have dismissed her arguments as “absurd” and found her claims of privilege to be legally overreaching.
