Jan. 6 committee attorneys allowed DA’s team to review (but not keep) a ‘limited set of evidence’ they gathered
In the spring of 2022, Georgia prosecutors investigating Donald Trump over his actions related to the 2020 election received an early boost from another set of investigators… the House Jan. 6 select committee.
In mid-April of that year, Committee staff quietly met with attorneys working on the case in Fulton County for DA Fani Willis, right around the time she was preparing to convene a special grand jury investigation – during which she employed her alleged paramour, Nathan Wade, who would also coordinate with the Biden White House on their case.
So – Fani coordinated with both the J6 committee and the White House, who helped them assemble their case against the former president.
According to Politico, the Jan. 6 committee attorneys allowed the DA’s team to review (but not keep) a ‘limited set of evidence’ they had gathered.
Over the next few months, committee staff also had a series of phone calls with Willis’ team. They answered the prosecutors’ questions and shared insight on matters like Trump’s false electors gambit and his efforts to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Both of those ploys ultimately featured prominently in the criminal charges that Willis brought against Trump and his allies last summer.
The contacts between the committee and Willis’ team also helped prosecutors prepare for interviews with key witnesses.
The coordination between Willis’ team and the J6 committee were described by two former committee officials on condition of anonymity – timing which has been corroborated by new court filings in Willis’ case against Trump and 14 co-defendants for their alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Interestingly, the J6 committee helped Willis’ team in its early stages while simultaneously rejecting DOJ requests for material in a separate criminal probe of Trump’s actions surrounding the 2020 election – because the committee was worried that federal prosecutors might have been required to disclose the committee’s carefully curated evidence in ongoing criminal cases related to January 6th.
Willis rejected congressional GOP efforts to disclose her team’s contact with the Jan. 6 committee, calling their investigation an affront to “well-established principles of federalism and separation of powers.”
“You cannot — and will not — be provided access to any non-public information about this,” she told the House Judiciary Committee in December in a letter obtained by the outlet.
Jan. 6 committee chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) had previously described “staff-level contacts” between his panel and Fulton County prosecutors. In early April 2022 — nearly two weeks before the panel’s staff met with Willis’ team — Thompson told reporters he wasn’t aware of how extensive those contacts were. And on Wednesday, Thompson told POLITICO that he did not know about the in-person visit that spring.
Willis’ office did not respond to requests for comment. A former Jan. 6 committee aide said in a statement: “As the January 6th Committee’s final report transparently stated, the Committee shared information — all of which is now public — with prosecutors conducting concurrent, independent investigations.” -Politico
After 18 months, the Jan. 6 committee amassed hundreds of witness interviews which have become key evidence in Trump’s legal matters.
According to Sol Wisenberg, a former prosecutor working on Ken Starr’s probe of Bill Clinton, the nature of the cooperation between Willis’ team and the J6 panel is unusual.
“To me, that’s a highly unusual level of specific cooperation,” he said, adding “They’re using what’s supposed to be a congressional investigation in aid of a prosecution.”
On Dec. 7, 2021, Willis asked Bernie Thompson’s office for help with her Trump probe, and wanted to meet in person. Four months later, her team visited DC and met with committee staff. Nathan Wade, Fani’s alleged lover, documented the meeting in an invoice he submitted to her office.
“Team meeting; Conf w/Jan 6; Research legal issues to prep interv,” reads one line item related to his invoice for work spanning April 18 to April 21, 2022. Two former committee officials told Politico that Willis’ team met with committee staff in April 2022, which included some of Willis’ top prosecutors (including Wade and Donald Wakeford).
The invoice from Wade became public knowledge in a Monday motion to dismiss filed by an attorney for Mike Roman, a former 2020 Trump campaign aide and a co-defendant in the Fulton County case. Roman’s attorney also alleged that Willis and Wade have a romantic relationship, and that Wade’s contract with her office poses a conflict of interest.
In the meeting, members of Willis’ team viewed some of the committee’s evidence on Georgia-specific matters, including Trump’s efforts to pressure local officials and the fake electors’ actions in the state.
Committee staff had more calls with the prosecutors over the following months, including discussions of their conversations with witnesses whom the prosecutors were planning to interview. The calls helped prosecutors prepare for those interviews. One witness they discussed was Pat Cipollone, Trump’s final White House counsel, who spoke with committee investigators just days before the meeting with Willis’ team. Cipollone reportedly sat for a formal interview with Willis about six months later.
The topics WIllis’ team huddled with the J6 Committee over became prominent features of her indictment against Trump et al.
Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans have recently begun to seek more details about contacts made between Willis and the committee.
