ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 Some Republicans in Washington and Georgia began attacking\u00a0Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis\u00a0immediately after she announced the\u00a0Aug. 14 indictment\u00a0of\u00a0former President Donald Trump\u00a0for conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. But others, including Gov. Brian Kemp, have been conspicuous in their unwillingness to pile on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kemp, who had previously survived scathing attacks from Trump over his refusal to endorse the former president\u2019s false claims about the election, declined to comment on the indictment of Trump and 18 others at a\u00a0conservative political conference\u00a0hosted by radio host and Kemp ally Erick Erickson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Noting that he had been called before a special grand jury to testify during the investigation,\u00a0Kemp stated forcefully\u00a0that Democratic President Joe Biden was the rightful winner of Georgia\u2019s 16 electoral votes and said swinging the spotlight to Trump\u2019s legal troubles would be a mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDemocrats want us to be focused on things like this, so we\u2019re not focused on Joe Biden\u2019s record,\u201d Kemp told Erickson on Aug. 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump, meanwhile, has kept up a withering assault on both Willis and Kemp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGovernor Kemp of Georgia is fighting hard against the impeachment of the crooked, incompetent & highly partisan D.A. of Fulton County, Fani Willis, who has allowed murder and other violent crime to MASSIVELY ESCALATE,\u201d the former president wrote Aug. 21 on his Truth Social platform. \u201cCrime in Atlanta is WORST IN NATION. She should be impeached for many reasons, not just the Witch Hunt (I did nothing wrong!)\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s little evidence to support Trump\u2019s claim that crime is escalating \u2014 the number of homicides has fallen sharply in Atlanta this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other Georgia Republicans didn\u2019t hesitate to assail Willis, with some joining Trump in the call to impeach the Atlanta-based prosecutor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFani Willis should be ashamed of herself and she\u2019s going to lose her job,\u201d said Republican U.S. Rep.\u00a0Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. \u201cWe\u2019ll make sure of that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Greene spoke to reporters last Thursday outside the Fulton County Jail, shortly before Trump arrived by motorcade to submit to booking and a mug shot. That same day, House Republicans in Washington announced their own investigation of Willis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By then, a few GOP lawmakers in Georgia were calling for a special session to impeach and remove Willis or defund her office. Others proposed amending the state constitution to let Kemp pardon Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both are longshot prospects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Georgia\u2019s General Assembly hasn\u2019t impeached anyone in more than 50 years, and with Republicans holding less than the required two-thirds state Senate majority to convict Willis, they would have to persuade Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Colton Moore, a Republican state senator whose purist brand of conservatism wins him few allies, launched a petition for lawmakers to call themselves into special session, requiring signatures by three-fifths of both houses. That too would require some Democratic support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Georgia voters amended the state constitution to shift pardon power from the governor to a parole board in the 1940s after a governor was accused of selling pardons. It would take a two-thirds vote of both houses to put a measure before voters to change that status, again requiring Democratic support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both are longshot prospects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Georgia\u2019s General Assembly hasn\u2019t impeached anyone in more than 50 years, and with Republicans holding less than the required two-thirds state Senate majority to convict Willis, they would have to persuade Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Colton Moore, a Republican state senator whose purist brand of conservatism wins him few allies, launched a petition for lawmakers to call themselves into special session, requiring signatures by three-fifths of both houses. That too would require some Democratic support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Georgia voters amended the state constitution to shift pardon power from the governor to a parole board in the 1940s after a governor was accused of selling pardons. It would take a two-thirds vote of both houses to put a measure before voters to change that status, again requiring Democratic support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe need to flip these corrupt RINO seats to true conservatives who will actually work and fight for the people,\u201d Kremer wrote on social media. \u201cSo embarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking for other options to go after Willis, some Georgia Republicans are coalescing around a plan to seek her removal by a new state prosecutorial oversight commission that begins work on Oct. 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission was created with the\u00a0aim of disciplining or removing\u00a0wayward prosecutors. Republicans fought hard for the law because they said some Democratic prosecutors were incompetent or coddling criminals, improperly refusing to prosecute whole categories of crimes, including marijuana possession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Democrats retorted that Republicans were the ones politicizing prosecutions, and some viewed the law as Republican retribution against Willis. She criticized the\u00a0measure as a racist attack\u00a0after voters elected 14 nonwhite DAs in the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The law lets the commission sanction prosecutors for \u201cwillful misconduct in office\u201d or \u201cundue bias or prejudice against the accused or in favor of persons with interests adverse to the accused.\u201d It\u2019s unclear how the commission will interpret those terms, because it hasn\u2019t created rules yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kemp, Burns and Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones name the commission\u2019s five-member investigative panel to examine complaints. They also name a three-member hearing panel that decides on charges filed by the investigative panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some district attorneys, not including Willis,\u00a0are already suing to overturn the law. Barring court intervention, people can begin filing complaints on Oct. 1 for alleged misconduct occurring after July 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such complaints could relieve political pressure on Georgia Republicans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDistrict Attorney Fani Willis has demonstrated that she is nothing more than a liberal activist attempting to bend the law to fit a narrative that she has spent an egregious amount of taxpayer resources to craft,\u201d state Sen. Jason Anivitarte wrote on social media, encouraging people to bring complaints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But if the commission\u2019s first act is to pursue Willis, critics say that will prove that it\u2019s nothing but a political tool to enforce GOP rule in Georgia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston, a Democrat and plaintiff in the suit challenging the law, told The Associated Press Monday that using the commission against Willis would confirm that it\u2019s what its opponents warned it would be \u2014 \u201can assault on prosecutorial independence and the latest attempt to subvert democracy in Georgia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 Some Republicans in Washington and Georg […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2754,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2752\/revisions\/2754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}