House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) subpoenaed Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis (D.) on Thursday for documents related to allegations that she fired a whistleblower who tried to stop her office from misappropriating federal grant funds.
In a letter to Willis, Jordan quoted extensively from a Washington Free Beacon report on the whistleblower, Amanda Timpson, who recorded a November 2021 meeting in which she warned Willis about the attempted misappropriation of a $488,000 grant for a youth gang prevention initiative to pay for "swag," travel, and computers. Though Willis did not dispute Timpson's claims during the meeting, she fired Timpson less than two months later and had her escorted out of the office by seven armed investigators.
"These allegations raise serious concerns about whether you were appropriately supervising the expenditure of federal grant funding allocated to your office and whether you took actions to conceal your office's unlawful use of federal funds," Jordan wrote to Willis.
The subpoena is the latest setback for Willis, who is beset by allegations of misappropriating taxpayer funds in her office. The Democrat's racketeering case against former president Donald Trump is unraveling amid allegations that she used taxpayer funds to facilitate her affair with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who used his earnings from the case to take Willis on extravagant vacations. Willis is due on Friday to respond to the Wade allegations in writing to Fulton County Superior Court judge Scott McAfee. She and Wade have also been subpoenaed to testify during a Feb. 15 hearing on a motion to disqualify the pair from the Trump case.
Jordan's subpoena, which was first reported by NBC News, demanded all documents and communications related to the Fulton County District Attorney's Office's receipt and use of federal funds from all sources, as well as any records related to allegations of misuse of such funds. Willis must produce the documents to the House Judiciary Committee by Feb. 23.
Jordan in his Friday letter excoriated Willis for ignoring his two prior requests to voluntarily turn over information relating to her use of federal funds. Willis refused to comply with those prior requests, saying that Jordan overstepped his congressional authority and that Congress had no justification to "interfere with a state criminal matter."
"The obvious purpose" of the requests, Willis said, "is to obstruct a Georgia criminal proceeding and to advance outrageous partisan misrepresentations." She told Jordan that his public statements and recent letter "make clear that you lack any legitimate legislative purpose for that inquiry."
The whistleblower allegations have captured the attention of local lawmakers as well. Fulton County commissioner Bridget Thorne told the Free Beacon that she too would be looking into Timpson's "concerning" allegations.
Willis also faces pressure from the state level. The Georgia State Senate voted last Friday to convene a special committee with subpoena powers to investigate the Wade allegations. That committee is set to hold its first meeting next week.