Fani Willis investigated by GOP senators over alleged abuse of federal funds
Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson are investigating whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office misused federal funds.
The two Republican senators highlighted multiple reports accusing Willis’ office of squandering funds, including from the Justice Department Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and other initiatives, on frivolous items such as “swag” and unrelated travel.
“In Fiscal Year (FY) 2020, OJJDP awarded Fulton County nearly $500,000 to establish the Fulton County Center of Youth Empowerment and Gang Prevention,” Grassley (R-Iowa) and Johnson (R-Wis.) wrote in a letter to Willis Wednesday.
“The Center has yet to open and the ‘building meant to house it is closed to the public, its gates padlocked.'”
They cited Washington Free Beacon reporting on Willis, a Democrat, firing Amanda Timpson, previously the head of gang prevention and intervention at the DA office.
She was the one who sounded the alarm about the potential misuse of OJJDP funds.
“The waste or misuse of taxpayer funds is unacceptable,” the Republican duo wrote.
Johnson and Grassley’s probe comes after House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) subpoenaed Willis back in February over similar allegations of mishandling federal funds.
Jordan has also threatened to hold Willis in contempt if she doesn’t comply with his demands.
Willis has been under fire from Republicans as she leads the 10-count Georgia election tampering case against former President Donald Trump.
In addition to concerns over the OJJDP fund use, the two GOP senators highlighted other financial questions revolving around the Fulton County DA’s office.
This includes a report from the Washington Free Beacon last month that the Justice Department discovered “inconsistencies” in Fulton County’s disclosure to the Federal Subaward Reporting System.
Grassley and Johnson also flagged how the Fulton County DA’s office reportedly got $2 million from a Sexual Assault Kit Initiative but spent about 49% of that on travel and other expenses between 2020 and 2023.
“The apparent and significant discrepancy between the purpose of the federal award of taxpayer money and the actual use of that money raises alarms that it hasn’t been used as Congress intended,” they wrote.
The two senators are demanding a list of grants the Fulton County DA’s office garnered since fiscal year 2019. Willis ascended to the district attorney perch in 2021.
They also want a list of expenditures and planned expenditures for each grant.
Willis was given a deadline of May 29 to comply with that request.
Georgia’s state legislature is also conducting an investigation into Willis.
In regard to that investigation she has said: “They can look all they want. The DA’s office has done everything according to the books.”
Willis has also been under fire for her relationship with Nathan Wade, whome she appointed as special prosecutor in the Trump case.
Wade has since stepped down from the election racketeering case after Judge Scott McAfee determined the pair couldn’t both be involved in it, due to the “appearace of impropriety” their relationship created.
Several co-defendants of Trump, 77, in that sprawling racketeering case, are working on an appeal to also knock her off the case, based on the “improper” affair.
A spokesperson for the Fulton County DA’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
