BREAKING: Rep. Jim Jordan Threatens To Hold Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis In Contempt Of Congress

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) threatened to hold Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in contempt of Congress on Wednesday after the embattled Georgia prosecutor failed to provide the necessary documents that were subpoenaed by Jordan's committee last month. The Judiciary Committee is investigating Willis' office for allegedly inappropriately spending federal grant money on luxury items.

Jordan wrote that the district attorney's office has provided some documents to the committee but that Willis' compliance "is deficient." Chairman Jordan requested that Willis provide all of the documents that fall under the subpoena by March 28, 2024, or else the committee will consider beginning contempt of Congress proceedings.

As previously reported by the DC Enquirer, Jordan's committee took action after an audio recording of a whistleblower, Amanda Timpson, surfaced. The audio includes a confrontation between Timpson and Willis about misusing a $488,000 federal grant. During the conversation, which took place on November 19, 2021, Timpson told Willis that she had been demoted after warning Willis's campaign aid, Michael Cuffee, about grant funds that could only be used for certain materials rather than luxury items like Macbook computers and other "swag." The $488,000 federal grant was required to be used for the creation of a Center for Youth Empowerment and Gang Prevention.

Timpson explained that Cuffee took her off as a junior district attorney because she didn't want to go along with his plan to misuse the funds. "I didn't not want to do it. He made it look as if I wasn't doing what I needed to do because I questioned him. Because I knew for a fact Mr. Cuffee, respectfully, did not know what he was doing, period."

"He wanted to do things with grants that were impossible, and I kept telling him, like, 'We can't do that,'" Timpson told Willis. "He told everybody … 'We're going to get MacBooks, we're going to get swag, we're going to use it for travel.' I said, 'You cannot do that; it's a very, very specific grant.'"

In response to these concerns, Willis said, "I respect that is your assessment. It was clear to me that you and Cuffee were not getting along," Willis responded. "And I'm not saying that your assessment is wrong." Timpson explained that Cuffee is "dangerous" to Willis's administration, which only began less than a year before the conversation took place. Less than two months after her warning, according to Timpson, she was fired and escorted out of the office by armed personnel. 

Given the damning audio recording, Jim Jordan issued a subpoena last month demanding that the Fulton County District Attorney's office turn over all receipts related to the use of federal grant funds. Jordan wrote that DA Willis is required to provide "all documents and communications referring or relating to the Fulton County District Attorney's Office's receipt and use of federal funds, including but not limited to, federal funds from the Department of Justice's Office Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and Office of Community Oriented Policing Services."

In response to the subpoena, Willis explained in a statement that the allegations were false and that the federal grant money was used appropriately. "These false allegations are included in baseless litigation filed by a holdover employee from the previous administration who was terminated for cause. The courts that have ruled found no merit in these claims. We expect the same result in any pending litigation," she said. "Any examination of the records of our grant programs will find that they are highly effective and conducted in cooperation with the Department of Justice and in compliance with all Department of Justice requirements. Our federal grant programs are focused on helping at-risk youth and seeking justice for sexual assault victims who were too long ignored. Our federal grant-funded Sexual Assault Kit Initiative has been cited by the United States Attorney General as a model program. We are proud of our grant programs and our partnership with the Department of Justice that makes Fulton County a safer, more just place."

Read the full letter below:

You can follow Sterling on X/Twitter here.