Last week, a Georgia court ordered Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to pay Judicial Watch nearly $22,000, finding that she ignored the organization’s open records request and hid communications.
In August 2023, Judicial Watch submitted an Open Records Act request for communications Willis’ office had with the Department of Justice’s special counsel Jack Smith’s office and the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, protest at the United States Capitol.
‘The District Attorney’s Office flatly ignored Plaintiff’s original ORA request, conducting no search and simply (and falsely) informing the County’s Open Records Custodian that no responsive records existed.’
The DA’s office claimed it did “not have the responsive records.”
“This response was perplexing and eventually suspicious to [Judicial Watch], given that Plaintiff subsequently uncovered through own effort at least one document that should have been in the District Attorney’s Office’s possession that was patently responsive to the request,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote.
In March 2024, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against Willis, arguing that she had “falsely denied” having any related communications to its open records request.
The judge found that Willis’ office repeatedly denied the existence of such records. However, in a later memo, her office “announced that there still were no records responsive to one set of Plaintiff’s requests (communications with former Special Counsel Jack Smith) but that there were in fact records responsive to Plaintiff’s second set of requests (communications with the United States House January 6th Committee) — but those were exempt from disclosure.”
McBurney stated that an open records request “is not hortatory; it is mandatory.”
“Non-compliance has consequences,” he wrote.
“Per her Records Custodian’s own admission, the District Attorney’s Office flatly ignored Plaintiff’s original ORA request, conducting no search and simply (and falsely) informing the County’s Open Records Custodian that no responsive records existed,” McBurney continued. “We know now that that is simply incorrect: once pressed by a Court order, Defendant managed to identify responsive records, but has categorized them as exempt.”
McBurney called the “late revelation” of the allegedly exempt communications “a patent violation” of Judicial Watch’s open records request.
The judge ordered Willis to pay the organization’s $21,578 in legal fees within two weeks.
Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton responded to the McBurney’s decision.
“Fani Willis flouted the law, and the court is right to slam her and require, at a minimum, the payment of nearly $22,000 to Judicial Watch,” Fitton said. “But in the end, Judicial Watch wants the full truth on what she was hiding – her office’s political collusion with the Pelosi January 6 committee to ‘get Trump.'”
The DA’s office did not respond to a request for comment from the New York Post.
Willis and her office have faced several misconduct allegations over the past year.
In December, Willis was disqualified from the Georgia case against President-elect Donald Trump due to her affair with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
Willis also faced an investigation into her office’s alleged misuse of federal grants worth $488,000. According to a staff whistleblower, the funds, which were earmarked for establishing a youth gang prevention center, were spent on ineligible and unrelated expenses.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
News, Courts, Fani willis, Georgia, Judicial watch, Politics
