Fani Willis Faces Prospect of an ‘Onerous’ Special Master for Her ‘Woefully Inadequate’ Handling of Correspondence With Jack Smith

The district attorney of Fulton County, Fani Willis, could soon face the imposition of a special master to review her compliance with Georgia law. That prospect of a chaperone comes as the Georgia court of appeals disqualified Ms. Willis from her sprawling racketeering case against President Trump and 18 others. The appellate judges, by a 2-to-1 margin, found that her secret romance with her special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, amounted to such a “significant appearance of impropriety” that disqualification was the only remedy.Ms. Willis has appealed that ruling to the Georgia supreme court, which possess the discretion to hear her petition or refuse it. The court of appeals overruled the trial judge, Scott McAfee, who determined that the district attorney’s behavior emitted an “odor of mendacity” and was “legally improper” but allowed her to stay on the case once Mr. Wade departed. Now, though, Ms. Willis faces a second headache — the possibility that an independent inspector, called the special master, could gain access to her office’s internal records. The request that such an observer be appointed comes from a conservative legal organization, Judicial Watch, which sued Ms. Willis under Georgia’s open records law.Judicial Watch is seeking access to whatever correspondence exists between Ms. Willis’s office and Special Counsel Jack Smith and the House January 6 committee. A Fulton County judge, Robert McBurney, late last year ruled that Ms. Willis’s response to those requests was so meager that she was in default of Peach State law. Judge McBurney ordered her to turn over the requested documents, and warned that attorneys fees could be imposed. Judge McBurney ordered her to “conduct a diligent search of her records for responsive materials.”Ms. Willis claims that he has “no responsive documents” relating to any correspondence with Mr. Smith and that her engagements with the January 6 committee “are exempt” from disclosure because they are subject to attorney-client privilege and other forms of mandatory confidentiality. Judicial Watch now wants to view those documents “in camera,” a request that Ms. Willis urges Judge McBurney to deny on account of it being “premature.”Judicial Watch also requests that Judge McBurney appoint a special master to oversee Ms. Willis’s handling of those records. Such an appointment, while unusual, is not unknown — Judge Aileen Cannon of South Florida imposed one on Mr. Smith in his Mar-a-Lago case against Mr. Trump, though the 11th United States Appeals Circuit subsequently reversed her. Ms. Willis writes that “the appointment of a Special Master in an open records case is not provided for by statute, unprecedented under the law, and overly intrusive.” Judicial Watch, though, maintains that Ms. Willis has made “no showing that the search was diligent. Based on her previous searches in this matter, it probably was not diligent.” Judicial Watch insists that “without a list or description” of the records at issue, “it is impossible to evaluate what, if any, exemptions or exceptions are applicable.” Judicial Watch calls her efforts to come into compliance with Peach State law “woefully inadequate.”To bolster that claim, Judicial Watch writes to Judge McBurney that Ms. Willis “did not search employee’s cellphones for responsive records” and “took employees at their word.” That suggests a less than diligent search. Georgia’s open records law stipulates that Judicial Watch “may request that the judge of the court … determine by an in camera examination whether such information was properly withheld.”Georgia law also empowers trial judges to appoint special masters “to provide guidance, advice, and information to the court on complex or specialized subjects” and to “monitor implementation of and compliance with orders of the court.” Judicial Watch contends that the “special master should have authority to audit searches and conduct searches herself.”Ms. Willis faced another setback last month when another judge at Fulton County, Shukura Ingram, ruled that the Georgia state senate can subpoena the district attorney over her handling of the prosecution of Mr. Trump. Ms. Willis has appealed that decision to the Georgia supreme court.

Fani Willis Faces Prospect of an ‘Onerous’ Special Master for Her ‘Woefully Inadequate’ Handling of Correspondence With Jack Smith

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