The Associated Press published a story last night headlined: Kemp signs Georgia law reviving prosecutor sanctions panel. Democrats fear it’s aimed at Fani Willis. The piece announces the news that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed a new law Wednesday that will allow the state’s Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission to begin disciplining and even ousting local prosecutors it deems to have gone “rogue.”
The bill creating the state-run board with authority to investigate and remove local district attorneys was signed into law last spring and was set to begin reviewing cases in October, but its operations have been on hold since November when the state Supreme Court refused to uphold rules regarding its regulation abilities.
While it hasn’t yet reviewed any actual cases, one of the first complaints filed with the new commission was against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Eight Georgia Senate Republicans filed the complaint with the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission mere weeks after Willis’ office indicted Donald Trump and 18 allies on state racketeering charges, among other things.
The law Kemp signed yesterday will make it so the state Supreme Court does not have to sign off on the commission’s rules of governance in order to function, meaning it can begin operating as intended — to “ensure rogue and incompetent prosecutors are held accountable if they refuse to uphold the law,” Kemp said at the signing Wednesday. That’s the official line on the state-run board. But it’s been designed to serve as a defense mechanism for Trump since the start.
Kemp and Georgia Republicans began pushing the initiative back in 2022 when other Republican governors were looking for ways to enact control over district attorneys whose enforcement they didn’t like. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) was one of the primary ones pushing this at the time as he went after a local DA who said he wouldn’t prosecute people seeking abortions.
But the long game was clear from the start, which is why the AP’s headline on Democratic concern for Willis was so striking to me. Before Willis brought any charges against Trump or his allies and before the defendants in that case dragged her through hours of testimony on a romantic relationship she had with one of the prosecutors on the Trump case, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) made it clear that the bill to create the commission was being introduced as a proactive retribution plan in the event that Willis brought charges against Trump. I unpacked that more here.
As the AP notes, the new measure will likely face its own set of legal challenges before the commission can take up Georgia Republicans’ complaint against Willis — but it’s one thing to have on your radar as we await final word on the disqualification decision from Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee.
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