News From Fulton County Georgia: Fani Willis Speaks And It Is Very Interesting

It has been 84 days since Fani Willis told a judge that charging decisions were “imminent” in her investigation of election interference in Georgia. Members of the grand jury hinted that they made multiple recommendations for prosecution, and that when released it would be “massive.” What Willis has been doing between then and now has been largely unknown.

However, a court filing today by Willis provides some big clues. In the filing Willis seeks that the court order the disqualification of an attorney representing ten potential defendants who all signed fake electoral college certificates. Willis tells the court those clients have conflicts against each other in the same proceeding making their mutual representation by Attorney Kimberly Debrow an “impractical and ethical mess.”

As background this is not Willis’s first attempt to disqualify Debrow. Willis first requested such disqualification last fall and she was partially successful. Last November the judge ruled that Debrow must disqualify herself from representing David Shafer, one of the 11 fake electors, because his circumstances were different from those of the others. Shafer was self described “Chairman” of the fake electors effort and apparently coordinated the effort with members of the Trump Campaign.

At that time the judge noted that problems could arise creating conflicts between the remaining ten fake electors that the judge allowed Debrow to continue to represent. Willis now asserts that time, and those conflicts, have come. The reasons they have arrived are quite interesting.

• On April 12 and 14, in just the last week, representatives of Willis’s office interviewed some of the electors represented by Debrow. In those interviews, with Debrow sitting right there, “some of the electors stated that another elector represented by Ms. Debrow committed acts that are violations of Georgia law and that they were not a party to these additional acts.”
• Willis recounts how last Summer the judge ordered that Debrow present to her ten clients an offer of immunity from Willis. Debrow responded last August that she had done so and none of her clients were interested. However, in interviews in just the last week “some of the electors represented by Ms. Debrow told members of the investigation team that no potential offer of immunity was brought to them.”

To summarize, Willis alleges that Debrow is representing hopelessly conflicted clients and that Debrow lied to the court in order to keep her representation of them together. Willis argues that Debrow must be disqualified from representing all of the ten because in her representation she has gained information that could be used on behalf of some to impeach others.

The filing makes clear that Willis’s investigation did not end with the Special Grand Jury’s report and recommendations in January. It continues, and includes witness/target interviews even within the last week. Willis is apparently attempting to flip some of the fake electors. In that regards I found the words “additional acts” above very interesting. The suggestion is that some of the electors committed crimes not directly related to the fake electors scam that they all participated in.

Indictments by Willis may have to wait this motion being resolved and efforts by Willis to reach deals with some of the electors for their cooperation.