The following is from Judicial Watch.

Judicial Watch announced today that the Superior Court in Fulton County, GA, issued an order granting $21,578 in “attorney’s fees and costs” in an open records lawsuit concerning communications between Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, Special Counsel Jack Smith, and the House January 6 Committee. The court’s decision followed a previous finding that Willis was in default in the lawsuit.

Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit in March 2024 after Willis falsely denied having any records responsive to a Georgia Open Records Act (ORA) request for communications with Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office and the January 6 Committee. The lawsuit is titled Judicial Watch Inc. v. Fani Willis et al. (No. 24-CV-002805).

After finding Willis in default, the court held a hearing on December 20, 2024, leading to the January 7, 2025, order that found Willis liable for attorney fees and expenses. The court instructed that the amount “shall be paid within two weeks of the entry of this Order.”

The court’s order recounts the timeline of events leading to the lawsuit:

Plaintiff [Judicial Watch] submitted an Open Records Act (ORA) request to Defendant on 22 August 2023 by way of Fulton County’s ORA online “portal.” That same day, Plaintiff received confirmation that its request had been delivered and would be channeled to the “appropriate department” (presumably the District Attorney’s Office). The following day, the County’s Open Records Custodian sent Plaintiff [Judicial Watch] an email confirming that the District Attorney’s Office had received the inquiry and asking Plaintiff to “simplify” its ORA [Open Records Act] request…. Literally five minutes later, before any simplification had occurred, Plaintiff received a second email from the Records Custodian: “After carefully reviewing your request. (sic) We do not have the responsive records.”

Judicial Watch noted that this response was “perplexing and eventually suspicious,” particularly after the group uncovered at least one document that should have been in the District Attorney’s possession and was patently responsive to the request.

In December 2024, the court ordered Willis to conduct a diligent search for responsive records and provide those not legally exempted from disclosure. However, her compliance was described as inadequate:

Defendant’s compliance with the Court’s 2 December Order consisted of an undated, unsigned two-page memo to Plaintiff from Defendant’s “Open Records Department.” … In this memo, Defendant announced that there still were no records responsive to one set of Plaintiff’s requests (communications with former Special Counsel Jack Smith) but that there were in fact records responsive to Plaintiff’s second set of requests (communications with the United States House January 6th Committee) – but those were exempt from disclosure….

Despite previously informing Judicial Watch four separate times that no responsive records existed, Willis later claimed that responsive records were exempt from disclosure under the ORA.

The court criticized Willis’s handling of the request:

The ORA is not hortatory; it is mandatory. Non-compliance has consequences. One of them can be liability for the requesting party’s attorney’s fees and costs of litigation.

Judicial Watch subsequently filed a motion asking the court to appoint a special master to oversee Willis’s record searches. Judicial Watch argued:

The foregoing gives rise to grave suspicion that all responsive records have not been found. The Court should appoint a special master to supervise and monitor the record searches. The special master should have authority to audit searches and conduct searches herself. She also should have authority to hire such consultants and experts as may be needed to execute her commission.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton commented:

“Fani Willis flouted the law, and the court is right to slam her and require, at a minimum, the payment of nearly $22,000 to Judicial Watch. But in the end, Judicial Watch wants the full truth on what she was hiding – her office’s political collusion with the Pelosi January 6 committee to ‘get Trump.’”

Judicial Watch is assisted in the case by John Monroe of John Monroe Law in Georgia.

Judicial Watch has several Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits related to the prosecutorial abuse targeting Trump:

In February 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice asked a federal court to allow the agency to keep secret the names of top staffers working in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office targeting former President Donald Trump and other Americans.

(Before investigating and prosecuting Trump, Special Counsel Jack Smith was involved in other controversies, including the IRS scandal. In 2014, a Judicial Watch investigation revealed that IRS officials communicated with Smith’s then-Public Integrity Section to plan criminal investigations into conservative tax-exempt groups. Read more here.)

In January 2024, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against Fulton County, Georgia, seeking records regarding the hiring of Nathan Wade as a special prosecutor by District Attorney Fani Willis. Wade was hired to lead unprecedented criminal investigations and prosecutions against Trump and others over disputes from the 2020 election.

In October 2023, Judicial Watch sued the DOJ for records of communications between Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office and the Fulton County DA’s office. The lawsuit requests information about federal funding or assistance in investigations against Trump and his 18 codefendants in the August 14, 2023, indictment. To date, the DOJ refuses to confirm or deny the existence of records, claiming it would interfere with enforcement proceedings. Judicial Watch’s litigation is ongoing.

Through New York’s Freedom of Information Law, in July 2023, Judicial Watch uncovered that New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg hired Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher at $900 per hour for partners and $500 per hour for associates to sue Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH). The lawsuit aimed to stop the House Judiciary Committee’s oversight investigation into Bragg’s indictment of Trump. Learn more here.

In his new book Rights and Freedoms in Peril, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton outlines abuses committed by officials and politicians against the American people. Fitton encourages readers to join the fight for “the soul and survival of America.”

For more information, read the full Judicial Watch press release here.