FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is fighting a state Senate Committee subpoena to testify.
Channel 2′s Richard Elliot learned that whether or not she’ll have to testify could boil down to how a judge interprets Georgia’s Constitution.
This is the first time in the more than 200 years of the Georgia General Assembly that the issue of whether or not a District Attorney can be subpoenaed has come up.
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Willis’ attorney, former Governor Roy Barnes, says the state Senate doesn’t have the legal ability to subpoena Willis or anyone else to testify.
State Senator Bill Cowsert wants Willis to come before his committee to question her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump and others. He also has questions about her romantic relationship with former special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
Barnes accused the entire investigation of being politically motivated and to find out what evidence she had against then-former President Trump.
“This is not a legitimate legislative purpose. This is nothing but a charade,” Barnes said. “But you cannot, under pain of contempt, bring about and punish somebody for not complying with a subpoena because they have no power to issue a subpoena after the General Assembly.”
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Josh Belinfante, an attorney for the state Senate, argued that the Constitution doesn’t specifically prohibit the committee from issuing a subpoena, so it can.
“It is presumed that the General Assembly can act unless the Constitution says otherwise,” Belinfante said. “The legislature has the authority to investigate; that’s the power it’s exercising.”
Willis did not appear in the courtroom on Tuesday.
The judge did not make a ruling, but said she would soon.
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