ATLANTA– Republicans in Georgia’s House of Representatives introduced a bill Monday that would revive a new state commission to discipline and fire prosecutors.
Some Republicans in Georgia want the new commission to discipline Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for winning indictments against former President Donald Trump and 18 others.
Although Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed legislation last year to create the new commission, it failed to launch after the Supreme Court declined in November to approve rules governing its conduct. The judges said they had “serious doubts” about their ability to regulate prosecutors’ duties outside the practice of law. Because lawmakers did not expressly order the justices to act, they declined to rule one way or another, they said.
A bill in the House of Representatives would remove the requirement that the Supreme Court approve the rules. It also raises the standard for overturning a commission decision.
A House committee passed it on Monday, despite Democrats’ objections. It now goes to the full House for a vote.
“This just makes the committee workable,” Rep. Joseph Gullett, a Republican from Dallas, told members of a House Judiciary Committee.
Committee member Shea Roberts, an Atlanta Democrat, said removing Supreme Court oversight removed any sense that the bill was nonpartisan.
“It’s purely partisan now,” she said.
Democrats on the committee proposed an amendment that would give their party the power to appoint some committee members, but it was rejected. The legislation Kemp signed gave Republicans control of all eight appointments to the commission.
Georgia’s law creating the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission is one of many nationwide efforts by Republicans to exert control over prosecutors they don’t like. Republicans have taken action against progressive prosecutors after some filed fewer drug possession cases and sought shorter prison sentences, arguing Democrats are coddling criminals.
In Georgia, four state attorneys general have filed a lawsuit to overturn the commission, arguing that it unconstitutionally infringes on their power.
Gullett defended the committee.
“At the end of the day, there are some Republican prosecutors who sometimes haven’t done the right thing, and there are some Democratic prosecutors who sometimes haven’t done the right thing,” he said.
Also on Monday, Republican Sen. Greg Dolezal of Georgia announced he wanted to create a special Senate committee to investigate Willis, separate from the committee.
Dolezal said in a statement that a “thorough and impartial investigation” would “ensure transparency, accountability and the preservation of the integrity of our justice system.”
A spokesman for Willis, Jeff DiSantis, had no comment.
Dolezal’s proposed resolution suggests that any investigation could be followed by legal or budgetary changes. The resolution would need to win approval in the Republican-majority Senate before a panel can be appointed.