Fani Willis says fury over conduct in the Trump case has given her ‘thicker skin’ and calls top Republican Jim Jordan a ‘clown’ for his ‘illegitimate’ investigations

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis says anger over her conduct in the Trump case has given her a “thicker skin” and calls top Republican Jim Jordan a “clown” for his “illegal” investigations.

Jordan’s House Judiciary Committee has been investigating alleged misconduct by Willis’ office as it prosecutes former President Donald Trump for possible election interference.

Earlier this year, Jordan threatened Willis with contempt of Congress to force her to shelve her plans to misuse a grant worth nearly half a million dollars.

She has also been investigated for her relationship with “lover” – and fellow Trump accuser – Nathan Wade.

“Jim Jordan has attacked my office again and again for no legitimate purpose,” Willis told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.

“Anyone who knows Jim Jordan’s history knows that his sole purpose is to interfere with a criminal investigation.”

Willis’ fighting words come the day before her re-election bid on Tuesday.

Jordan, R-Ohio, previously disclosed that Willis’ team planned to misuse a grant earmarked for the creation of a Center of Youth Empowerment and Gang Prevention to pay for new luxuries including MacBooks and expensive trips .

A whistleblower who came forward with details about the illegal scheme was subsequently fired, Republicans alleged, while they issued a subpoena in February demanding related documents and communications about the alleged $488,000 scheme.

She ultimately complied with the investigation, but called it “illegal” and called the Ohio Republican’s actions “disgusting.”

When whistleblower Amanda Timpson informed Willis of the alleged plot, she was promptly fired, according to the commission’s subpoena in February.

After her dismissal, she was escorted out of the office by seven armed investigators.

A February Free Beacon report identified Willis aide Michael Cuffe as the person behind the alleged scheme to misuse taxpayer money.

‘[Cuffe] wanted to do things with subsidies that were impossible, and I kept telling him, ‘We can’t do that,'” Timpson told Willis during a meeting on November 19, 2021, according to a recording of the conversation obtained by the Vrije Baken.

“He told everyone… ‘We’re going to buy MacBooks, we’re going to buy swag, we’re going to use it for travel.’ I said, ‘You can’t do that, it’s a very, very specific subsidy.’ “I respect that this is your assessment,” Willis replied. “And I’m not saying your assessment is wrong.”

Willis has courted controversy during the prosecution of the county’s election interference case against Trump after it was revealed she had a past relationship with special counsel Nathan Wade.

She escaped with just a slap on the wrist after Supreme Court Justice Scott McAfee dramatically ruled that she could stay in the Trump election interference case if Wade removed himself.

Earlier this year, Jordan threatened Willis with contempt of Congress to get her to comply with his investigation into her use of federal funds.

Trump and eight of his co-defendants charged in Georgia state court have since urged the appeals court to overturn McAfee’s ruling in March, and the appeals court gave Trump’s appeal the green light to proceed to go.

The court’s decision to hear the appeal before the hearing could lead to further delays in the case. It is one of four criminal charges Trump faces in his bid to unseat Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election.

Trump has pleaded not guilty and accused prosecutors of a politically motivated attempt to damage his campaign.

The court’s decision to hear the case follows courtroom testimony from McAfee in which Willis and former special prosecutor Nathan Wade acknowledged they had a sexual relationship.

Lawyers for Donald Trump and several co-defendants tried to establish that the affair began before Willis brought Wade into the case and said there was a conflict of interest. But Willis said the relationship later turned romantic.

The Judiciary Committee also demanded documents related to Willis’ relationship with Wade in January, noting that he was paid more than $650,000 — at a rate of $250 an hour — to work on the investigation and prosecution from Trump and other federal officials. to a court file.

The committee noted that federal funds may have been used to pay Wade, giving them the authority to investigate.

The committee also highlighted the “huge legal fees” charged by Wade to the Public Prosecution Service in one case, on November 5, 2021, charging for 24 hours of legal work in one day, claiming he worked all day and spent the night working on the prosecution. .