Georgia House passes prosecutor oversight bill, headed to Gov. Kemp’s desk

Lawmakers approved a new commission to oversee Georgia’s prosecutors and that could include Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

The Georgia House voted along party lines to approve the creation of that commission, which is now on its way to the governor’s office.

The move comes as the Georgia Senate will begin its investigation into Willis starting on Wednesday.

Georgia Republicans insist the bill has nothing to do with Willis. They point to DAs in Paulding, Glynn and Muscogee counties.

But Democrats say this bill will give a Republican-controlled commission authority over DAs they just don’t agree with.

The bill corrects some language the Georgia Supreme Court rejected and essentially creates the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Qualification Commission, a group of mostly Republican-appointed members who can investigate district attorneys if they feel they’re not doing their job prosecuting crimes.

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“Voting for this bill is voting to allow unelected partisan agents to oversee and obstruct decisions handed down by district attorneys that were duly elected by Georgia voters,” state Rep. Sam Park said.

But Republicans pushed back insisting they’ve been working on this bill for years and that it could be used to go after DAs like the one in Paulding County accused of sexual harassment in his office.

“This is not a knee-jerk reaction to anything that’s happening in our state in this month, six months, or anytime,” House Speaker Jon Burns said.

Burns told Channel 2′s Richard Elliot that he believes the commission is the correct way to investigate allegations against Willis, not the Senate investigative committee which will meet Wednesday morning and will call its first witness.

Athens state Sen. Bill Cowsert said he’s happy to give Willis a chance to testify, too.

“I will certainly give her the opportunity, you know. And if I was her, I would want to be heard,” Cowsert said.

There was no comment from the DA’s office for this story.

The special Senate select investigative committee will convene at 9 a.m. Its first witness is attorney Ashleigh Merchant who first made the allegations against Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade.

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