Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been hit with a $21,578 bill for attorney’s fees after repeatedly failing to comply with Georgia’s Open Records Act (ORA).
The ruling comes as part of a lawsuit filed by conservative watchdog Judicial Watch following an open records request related to communications with the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot. At the time, Willis’ office initially claimed that no such records existed.
According to Mediaite, regardless of repeated assurances from the DA’s office, the court found that Willis had withheld crucial documents, including a letter she wrote to the Jan. 6 committee chair.
Under pressure from the court, Willis later acknowledged the existence of some documents but argued that they were exempt from disclosure. The court didn’t buy the explanation, emphasizing that her office failed to search for the records until forced by litigation.
Judge Robert McBurney criticized the DA’s office for its noncompliance, noting that the “Records Custodian’s own admission” proved the office had ignored the records request.
“No one searched until prodded by civil litigation,” he wrote in a scathing ruling.
In the court’s decision on January 3, Judge McBurney highlighted the severity of Willis’ repeated violations and ordered her office to pay Judicial Watch’s legal fees.
“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,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “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 payment is due by Jan. 17th.
Last month, Willis was also disqualified from the 2020 election interference case against President-elect Trump over her inappropriate relationship with former special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
