Fulton County District Fani Willis wrote a scathing letter to Governor Brian Kemp’s lawyer for accusing her investigation of being “politically motivated.”
Ben Gray/AP Photo
A newly-revealed email shows how Fulton County DA Fani Willis blasted Governor Brian Kemp’s lawyer.
The lawyer had repeatedly called Willis’ election probe “politically motivated” in emails to her staff.
Willis slammed the lawyer’s comments as “offensive and beneath an officer of the court.”
A newly-revealed email shows how Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis excoriated the lawyer of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp for accusing her office of undermining Kemp’s re-election chances by calling up the governor for testimony.
The email was part of a conversation attached to a court filing on Wednesday in which Kemp’s lawyer, Brian McEvoy, sought to dismiss a subpoena of Kemp for the investigation into former President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. It reveals the frustration of Willis’ office in trying to secure testimony from Kemp, and how the governor has responded to the probe’s requests.
In the attached conversation, McEvoy and counsels from Willis’ office discussed Kemp’s possible testimony, up until McEvoy called Willis’ probe “politically motivated” on July 20 and repeatedly cited concerns of “leaks” that could lead the public to learn that the governor had been called to testify.
Kemp is currently seeking reelection after soundly beating his GOP rival David Perdue in the Georgia gubernatorial primary in May.
That was when the district attorney stepped in, personally reprimanding McEvoy and challenging his claims.
“The email you sent is offensive and beneath an officer of the court. You are both wrong and confused,” Willis’ email read.
“Let’s discuss the ways you are wrong: This is NOT a politically motivated investigation. It is a criminal investigation and often at the end of criminal investigations people are cleared and often they go to prison,” she continued.
Willis wrote that McEvoy’s repeated references to the so-called “politically motivated investigation” did not make it the truth. “In fact, you repeating it so many times only proves you have become very comfortable being dishonest,” she added.
In the email, Willis also wrote that McEvoy’s reasoning that her office’s probe was driven by a separate agenda because it took place during an election cycle was “without merit as you have purposely delayed to get us to our current date.”
Gov. Brian Kemp is seeking a second term in office this year.
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Willis’ investigation focuses on whether Trump and his allies violated Georgia’s election fraud and racketeering laws while he tried to pressure state officials to overturn the state’s 2020 election results. The 18-month probe has deployed a special grand jury with the power to subpoena potential witnesses and has ordered some of Trump’s closest advisers, including his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, to appear for testimony.
Kemp has been called as a witness because he was one of the officials Trump phoned in December for help with overturning the results. The governor had tweeted at the time that he was advocating for a signature audit of the votes.
As part of the investigation, Willis’ office had arranged for Kemp to submit a recorded video testimony by July 25 about Trump’s request when McEvoy made his claims about the probe being a risk to Kemp’s re-election.
In her response, Willis said her office had never leaked anything about the investigation and that it was the attorneys of witnesses, such as Kemp and Giuliani, who often reveal to the public that their clients are the targets of a probe.
The district attorney said she had already told her staff to “bend over backwards” to accommodate Kemp out of respect for his position.
“We have been working with you in good faith for months. You have been rude and even disparaging to my staff. You have been less than honest about conversations that have taken place,” she wrote.
“You have taken my kindness as weakness and you have continually treated this investigation with disdain,” Willis added. She also demanded that her staff be treated with the same respect that they had shown to McEvoy.
“Your client is a mere witness that needs to come and tell the truth. That is all we have ever asked of the Governor,” Willis wrote.
So far, Kemp has not submitted the requested video testimony and was on August 4 issued with another subpoena on Thursday.
In Kemp’s challenge to the subpoena submitted on Wednesday, McEvoy repeated the same claims he made about Willis’ probe, saying the district attorney had “engineered the Governor’s interaction with the investigation to reach a crescendo in the middle of an election cycle.”
Kemp is set to face off against Democrat Stacey Abrams in a rematch of 2018’s midterm elections, in which he beat her by a slim margin.
Trump has repeatedly attacked Kemp for refusing to back his baseless election fraud claims and for resisting pressure not to certify President Joe Biden’s win in the state. However, earlier this month, Insider reported that Trump has not ruled out endorsing Kemp in the state’s upcoming gubernatorial race.