As Donald Trump is facing possible indictment in Fulton County, some of Georgia's most powerful Republicans want to give the state more power to control and remove district attorneys.
A pair of bills introduced Thursday by state Reps. Houston Gaines and Joseph Gullett follow up on calls from Gov. Brian Kemp and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones to bring "accountability" to local prosecutors, but the legislators insist the bill has nothing to do with the criminal investigation by district attorney Fani Willis into the former president's efforts to overturn his election loss in the state, reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“If a prosecutor is not doing his or her job, we need a system in state law to remove that individual from office,” Gaines said. “It is past time we take on rogue prosecutors in Georgia who are putting lives in danger every single day.”
House Bill 229 would significantly lower the threshold for signatures required -- from 20 percent of registered voters to 2 percent -- to recall a prosecutor and stipulate that a failure to review every case could be grounds for removal, and House Bill 231 would establish a panel that could remove prosecutors for a variety of reasons.
“There is already oversight over district attorneys,” said Democratic state Sen. Elena Parent. “They have to be elected by voters. They also can be recalled by their voters. In San Francisco, voters recalled their DA when they were dissatisfied with his performance. Georgians can do the same.”
Members of the proposed Prosecuting Attorneys Oversight Commission would be appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and legislative leaders, and Gullett said Georgians have been "begging" to hold "corrupt prosecutors" accountable.
Gaines and Gullett had two prosecutors from their own districts in mind when introducing their bills.
Athens-Clarke County district attorney Deborah Gonzalez, a Democrat who lost her House seat to Gaines in 2018, has been accused by Republicans of mismanaging her office, and former Paulding County district attorney Dick Donovan, a Republican, resigned in January 2022 after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of unprofessional conduct stemming from a sexual harassment accusation.
“The proposed committee would serve to erode this system of checks and balances and directly undermine the will of the voters by moving the fate of locally elected officials out of their jurisdiction,” Gonzalez told the newspaper.
The author of the highly anticipated forthcoming book 'People vs Donald Trump' is facing serious consequences for his in-depth recount of the attempted prosecution of the former President.
Mark Pomerantz is the author and former Manhattan District Attorney Special Prosecutor who gained national notoriety when he resigned after the Manhattan District Attorney didn't perform up to his standards, as he has already caused a stir by expressing his opinion that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg made many mistakes in prosecuting Trump.
A national prosecutors group issued a letter stating that Pomerantz's behind-the-scenes details could lead to disbarment and even a felony criminal charge if his book violates ethical commitments. Pomerantz said Bragg's problems with the investigation began from the start as he delayed building a working relationship with him and Carey Dunne, the other leading prosecutors. Pomerantz and Dunne both quit February 2021.
In direct contrast with his predecessor Cy Vance, Jr., Bragg believed that he did not have enough evidence to prosecute Trump for criminal intent for his financial manipulation of corporate asset values.
Pomerantz came out of retirement to work on the Trump case in 2021.
A Texas woman has been charged with impersonating a federal employee to defraud immigrants.
Ana Hernandez was charged with 10 counts of wire fraud and one count of impersonating an employee of the U.S. government after she allegedly posed as a Citizenship and Immigration Services worker to rip off at least 20 victims, reported Border Report.
Investigators say the 53-year-old El Paso woman asked her victims to provide her with documentation required to file and adjust their immigration status, and she defrauded them and possibly others out of more than $40,000.
She faces a maximum of 20 years in prison on each count of wire fraud and three years for the the impersonation count.
