GOP moves to punish Fani Willis for 'cherry-picked cases' against Trump and co-defendants

Georgia GOP senators are going to court to seek a rebuke of the prosecutor spearheading the indictment of former President Donald Trump for attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential results.

A formal complaint was filed on Oct. 1 by state Republicans accusing Fulton County DA Fani Willis of having “improperly cherry-picked cases to further her personal political agenda” after her office brought charges against Trump and 18 co-defendants. The complaint seeks the use of a newly formed commission to sanction her, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“The integrity of our justice system is at stake, and the trust of the community in the District Attorney’s Office has been severely eroded,” the publication reported the complaint as saying.

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It suggests that the effort by eight state lawmakers (including Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch, state Sen. Jason Anavitarte, and another high-ranking Republican in the chamber) to undermine Willis’ indictment were put into motion just hours after the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualification Commission was put in place.

The commission was formed as a byproduct of a law passed on the same day of the filing, essentially calling for aggressive checks on suspected rogue prosecutors running their own agendas. It can discipline or remove them entirely from their post.

Even though he supported and signed the law, Georgia's Republican Gov. Brian Kemp dismissed any notion that Willis’ actions targeting Trump warranted sanctions, stressing instead that the law was intended to curb “far-left prosecutors” who are “making our communities less safe.”

On Aug. 14, Trump along with 18 co-defendants were indicted in a sweeping case accusing them of teaming up to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump faces 13 counts which include a racketeering charge, solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer, conspiracy to commit impersonating of a public officer, conspiracy to commit forgery, conspiracy to commit false statements, and conspiracy to commit filing false documents.Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and his former attorney and mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, were also hit with criminal charges.

While Trump himself isn’t named in the complaint against Willis, the AJC highlighted a section that mentioned depraved conditions inside county correctional facilities that require Willis to act, while she instead spends time impaneling "a special grand jury to investigate her political adversaries.”

The papers point to 10 incarcerated inmates who died in the past year while in Fulton County custody, according to the AJC.

“Her selective prosecution has resulted in dangerous, deadly, and unjust overcrowding and an unprecedented backlog of cases in the judicial system,” reads the complaint, according to AJC.

It adds: “These consequences are unacceptable and detrimental to our state. Across the aisle, Democrats leveled a retort calling the attacks against Willis as political sideshow antics.

Sen. Nabilah Islam Parks defended Willis in an interview with AJC.

“Fani Willis is doing her job in upholding the rule of law,” she said, and added that she was “deeply troubled by any attempt to interfere in lawful prosecutions for political purposes."