Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz cheered his fellow House Republicans on Friday after the Judiciary Committee hit scandal-ridden left-wing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis with a subpoena to testify about the misuse of federal grants.
The Atlanta-based DA is leading an alleged election fraud case against former President Donald Trump, claiming Trump unlawfully tried to overturn the 2020 election.
But the Democratic prosecutor has been rocked recently by allegations that she allowed federal grants to be wrongfully used and that she had an affair with a special prosecutor she hired for Trump’s case.
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On Friday, Willis admitted that claims made by one of Trump’s co-defendants about her affair with lawyer Nathan Wade were correct, confessing she had an “improper” relationship with Wade. Willis’ office has also paid Wade more than $650,000 for his work on the case, even though he has no experience prosecuting cases like Trump’s.
Aside from that scandal, Gaetz on Friday applauded the Judiciary Committee for demanding that Willis finally comply with its requests for an accounting of federal grants that may have been misappropriated.
“GREAT NEWS! Following my call to hold a congressional hearing on Fani Willis’ alleged misuse of federal grants, the @JudiciaryGOP has officially sent her a subpoena,” the Fort Walton Beach Republican posted on X.
Gaetz has said on Wednesday that an investigation into Willis was needed after a whistleblower alleged she ignored warnings about misspent federal grants.
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As the Tampa Free Press reported earlier this week, the congressman was responding to reports about comments by Amanda Timpson, a former Willis staffer.
According to a recording of her conversation with Willis, Timpson in 2021, shortly after Willis took office, told the prosecutor that Michael Cuffee, one of Willis’ senior campaign aides, wanted to use a $488,000 federal grant for personal purposes.
The grant was slated for the creation of a facility called the Center of Youth Empowerment and Gang Prevention.
Yet Timpson claimed Cuffee wanted “to do things with grants that were impossible,” meaning using the funding for purposes other than what was spelled out in the grant. Timpson said Cuffee wanted to use the funding to buy “swag” for Willis’ staff.
Willis dismissed her claims as the result of a personality clash with Cuffee and Timpson was fired less than two months later.
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Gaetz on Wednesday noted that the Wade and Cuffee scandals showed that Willis demonstrated that she found “financial malpractice and malfeasance was acceptable.”
Gaetz demanded that the committee issue her a subpoena to force her testimony and predicted a probe would uncover even more corruption.
On Friday, the Judiciary Committee agreed.
In a letter to Willis, committee Chairman Jim Jordan noted that Willis had ignored three previous requests for a response about federal funding made between August and December.
“The Committee’s oversight of your office’s use of federal grant funds is particularly relevant in light of public whistleblower allegations that it has misused federal funding,” Jordan wrote.
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“These allegations raise serious concerns about whether you were appropriately supervising the expenditure of federal grant funding allocated to your office and whether you took actions to conceal your office’s unlawful use of federal funds,” he added.
Jordan’s letter noted that the subpoena was enclosed but did not appear to provide a deadline for her to comply.
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