WASHINGTON (CN) — As former President Donald Trump prepared Thursday to be arraigned on a fourth set of criminal charges, this time in Georgia, his Republican allies in the House made it clear that they would use their pulpit to hamper state prosecutors.
Trump, who already faces federal and state charges stemming from a cornucopia of sordid conduct, was again indicted last week for his participation in a scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the Peach State. The former president’s indictment came alongside more than a dozen similar orders from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, aimed at co-conspirators including Rudy Giuliani and campaign lawyer Sidney Powell.
Congressional Republicans, many of whom remain publicly loyal to Trump, have sought to paint the former president’s legal woes as a concerted effort by the Biden administration to push him out of the 2024 presidential race — in which he remains the expected GOP nominee. Republican lawmakers on Thursday directed their ire at Georgia, as House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan announced that his panel would investigate District Attorney Willis.
Jordan, an Ohio Republican and longtime supporter of former President Trump, reiterated claims in a letter to DA Willis that Trump's legal jeopardy was largely the product of political malfeasance.
“Your indictment and prosecution implicate substantial federal interests, and the circumstances surrounding your actions raise serious concerns about whether they are politically motivated,” the lawmaker wrote Thursday.
In his scattershot letter, Jordan suggested that the timing of Willis’ prosecution was designed to interfere with the 2024 election, arguing that she had been building her case since 2021 and had only now decided to bring charges. The Ohio Republican laid out his case for congressional oversight on the district attorney’s indictment, pointing to among other things the implication of charging a former president on the future of the office and the use of federal funds provided to the Fulton County prosecutor.
Jordan also sought to tie Willis’ investigation to the federal inquiry into Trump. “[T]here are questions about whether and how your office coordinated with [Justice Department] Special Counsel Jack Smith during the course of this investigation,” the lawmaker said. Willis and Smith interviewed many of the same witnesses, the congressman contended.
Jordan demanded that Willis turn over information related to her office’s federal funding and any communications between the DA and the federal government.
Although Jordan and House Republicans sought to cast aspersions on Willis’ investigation, at least one expert said Thursday that while a congressional probe is in bounds for lawmakers, accusations of malfeasance by the Fulton County DA may not carry much water.
“It seems clear that [Jordan] is entitled to do this,” said Stuart Green, professor of law at Rutgers University’s S.I. Newhouse Center for Law and Justice. “As long as there’s some colorable connection to the federal expenditure of funds or federal interests, they have to consider whether to pass new legislation to address the problem, whatever that would look like.”
Despite that, Green poked holes in several of Jordan’s accusations — particularly that there had been untoward coordination between Fulton County and the Justice Department.
“On its face, there’s no bar to coordination between the federal government, federal prosecutors and state prosecutors,” Green explained. “It happens all the time and is extremely appropriate. I don’t think there’s anything concerning or troubling about coordination as such.”
While there are certainly cases where coordination between federal and state prosecutors could be inappropriate, Green pointed out that Jordan “doesn’t really allege what that would consist of.”
Green also took issue with Jordan's suggestion that Congress is entitled to investigate Willis merely because her office receives federal funding. “That’s true in theory,” he said, “but, again, there doesn’t seem to be any allegation that funds were misused. If they’re used to pay for the lights at the jail, and the jail is being used to process some of these defendants, it’s hard to see how that’s worthy of a congressional investigation.”
Things are a bit thornier when it comes to Jordan’s accusations that the indictments against Trump represent political persecution, the professor observed.
“I think the criminalization of politics is always a genuine concern,” Green said, “and it’s compounded by the fact that prosecutors in many jurisdictions are elected.” District attorneys in those districts are simultaneously acting as arbiters of the law and running for reelection, he pointed out. “We expect that in the legislative branch and the executive branch, but prosecutors are supposed to be above politics, and yet, they can’t possibly be if they’re running for reelection.”
Fulton County, which contains the city of Atlanta, elects their district attorney — and Willis is up for reelection in 2024.
Although Green said he was concerned about the intermingling between prosecutors and politics, he contended that it’s harder to make an argument that political pressure played a role in Trump’s Georgia indictment.
“If there wasn’t a mountain of evidence and probable cause, then you might say that criminal process is being used to harass,” he said, “but it seems like the evidence they’ve gathered suggests that there is a genuine, legitimate criminal justice basis for the investigation.”
Willis on Thursday requested an Oct. 23 trial date in her case against Trump and his co-conspirators.
As Trump prepares to face arraignment in Georgia, he is battling three other sets of charges related to his time as president. Special Counsel Jack Smith has twice indicted the former president on separate federal charges related to his mishandling of classified documents and his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump also faces criminal charges in New York related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in the weeks leading up to the 2016 presidential election.
Follow @BenjaminSWeiss
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