In the spring of 2022, Georgia prosecutors investigating Donald Trump over his actions related to the 2020 election got an early boost from another group of investigators: the January 6 House of Representatives Committee.
In mid-April of that year, the commission’s staff met quietly with attorneys working on the case in Fulton County for District Attorney Fani Willis, right around the time she was preparing to convene a special grand jury investigation – employing her alleged lover, Nathan. Wade, who would do that Also coordinate with the Biden White House on their case.
So – Fani coordinated with both the J6 committee And the White House, which helped them build their case against the former president.
According to Politics, The January 6 committee’s lawyers allowed the district attorney’s team to review (but not preserve) a ‘limited set of evidence’ they had gathered.
Over the next few months, commission staff also made a series of phone calls to Willis’ team. They answered prosecutors’ questions and shared insights on issues such as Trump’s election rigging and his efforts to pressure Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger. Both tricks eventually featured prominently in the prosecution that Willis filed against Trump and his allies last summer.
Contacts between the commission and Willis’ team also helped prosecutors prepare for interviews with key witnesses.
The coordination between Willis’ team and the J6 committee were described by two former commission officials on condition of anonymity – timing confirmed by new lawsuits in Willis’ case against Trump and fourteen co-defendants for their alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Interesting enough, the J6 committee helped Willis’ team in the early stages while simultaneously denying DOJ requests for materials in a separate criminal investigation into Trump’s actions surrounding the 2020 election — because the committee was concerned that federal prosecutors may be required to make public the committee’s carefully compiled evidence in ongoing criminal cases involving relating to January 6.
Willis rejected the Republican Party’s efforts to publicize her team’s Jan. 6 contact with the committee. They call their research an affront to “well-established principles of federalism and separation of powers.”
“You cannot — and will not — have access to any non-public information about this,” she told the House Judiciary Committee in a December letter obtained via the socket.
Jan. 6 Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) had previously described “personnel-level contacts” between his panel and Fulton County prosecutors. In early April 2022 — nearly two weeks before the panel’s staff met with Willis’ team — Thompson told reporters he was unaware of how extensive those contacts were. And on Wednesday, Thompson told POLITICO he knew nothing about the in-person visit that spring.
Willis’ office did not respond to requests for comment. A former January 6 committee aide said in a statement: “As the January 6 committee’s final report transparently stated: The commission shared information — all of which is now public — with prosecutors who were conducting simultaneous, independent investigations.” -Politics
After 18 months, the January 6 committee met hundreds of witness interviews that have become key evidence in Trump’s legal cases.
According to Sol Wisenberg, a former prosecutor working on Ken Starr’s investigation into Bill Clinton, the nature of the collaboration between Willis’ team and the J6 panel is unusual.
“For me, yes a highly unusual level of specific cooperation” he said, adding, “They are using what should be a congressional investigation to support a prosecution.”
On December 7, 2021, Willis asked Bernie Thompson’s office for help in her investigation of Trump and wanted to meet in person. Four months later, her team visited DC and met with committee staff. Nathan Wade, Fani’s alleged lover, documented the encounter on an invoice he reported to her office.
“Team meeting; Conf with Jan 6; Investigate legal issues to prepare interv,” reads a line item regarding his bill for work from April 18 to April 21, 2022. Two former committee officials told Politics that Willis’ team met with committee staff in April 2022, including some of Willis’ top accusers (including Wade and Donald Wakeford).
Wade’s bill became public knowledge on Monday motion to dismiss filed by an attorney for Mike Roman, a former Trump 2020 campaign official and co-defendant in the Fulton County case. Roman’s attorney also claimed that Willis and Wade are in a romantic relationship and that Wade’s contract with her firm presents a conflict of interest.
During the meeting, members of Willis’ team reviewed some of the committee’s evidence on specific issues in Georgia, including Trump’s efforts to pressure local officials and the actions of the state’s fake voters.
Committee staff had more telephone conversations with prosecutors in the following months, including discussions about their conversations with witnesses prosecutors planned to question. The calls helped prosecutors prepare for those hearings. One witness they discussed was Pat Cipollone, Trump’s last White House counsel, who spoke to committee investigators just days before the meeting with Willis’ team. Cipollon reportedly sat for a formal interview with Willis about six months later.
The topics WIllis’ team discussed with the J6 Committee became prominent features of its indictment of Trump et al.
Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress have recently begun seeking more details about Willis’ contacts with the committee.
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