Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis secretly colluded with the one-sided, Democrat-run January 6 Committee to obtain tips that would help her prosecute Donald Trump — and tried to keep it out of court, and public view, using a procedural trick.
The revelation could upend the prosecution of Trump and 18 co-defendants because the evidence was concealed to keep it away from discovery requirements that would allow defense lawyers to see what was shared, and the extent of the collaboration.
Politico reported Wednesday:
Committee staff quietly met with lawyers and agents working for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in mid-April 2022, just as she prepared to convene a special grand jury investigation. In the previously unreported meeting, the Jan. 6 committee aides let the district attorney’s team review — but not keep — a limited set of evidence they had gathered.
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The committee aided Willis’ nascent probe even as it rebuffed the Justice Department’s requests for material in the separate federal criminal probe of Trump’s election subversion. At the time, one reason the committee was more inclined to cooperate with the Fulton County team than with the federal prosecutors was that federal prosecutors might have been required to disclose the evidence in ongoing criminal cases related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
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Jan. 6 committee chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) had previously described “staff-level contacts” between his panel and Fulton County prosecutors. In early April 2022 — nearly two weeks before the panel’s staff met with Willis’ team — Thompson told reporters he wasn’t aware of how extensive those contacts were. And on Wednesday, Thompson told POLITICO that he did not know about the in-person visit that spring.
The lawyers from the January 6 Committee shared evidence with Willis when she was convening a “special purpose grand jury,” prior to the criminal grand jury. Since there were no defendants, Politico notes, there could be no defense motions for discovery.
Because the January 6 Committee later destroyed its records — ironically, given that President Donald Trump faces a separate prosecution for mishandling government documents — it may not be possible for the defense to obtain all evidence against it.
Moreover, much of the January 6 Committee’s evidence was collected and presented in ways that violated the civil rights of defendants and witnesses, thanks to the fact that then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) blocked Republicans from appointing committee members of their choice. Witnesses who faced the committee’s lawyers behind closed doors found that there was no semblance of a two-sided, adversarial process — only an inquisition, with even “Republicans” opposing Trump.
Willis is already under scrutiny after lawyers for Trump co-defendant Mike Roman filed a motion this week alleging that she had an improper relationship with fellow prosecutor Nathan Wade, from which both Willis and Wade had benefited financially.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the 2021 e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now updated with a new foreword. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.