Fani Willis ordered to hand over communications with Jack Smith, J6 Committee to Judicial Watch

The Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia has ordered that District Attorney Fani Willis hand over all communications she had with special counsel Jack Smith and the defunct January 6 Committee to Judicial Watch, which sued Willis under the Open Records Act (ORA).

The court granted the default judgment motion brought forth by Judicial Watch, which stated that Willis had been served with the lawsuit in March 2024, but by May when Judicial Watch asked the court to declare default judgment, Willis had still "not filed an answer" despite it being due "30 days after service."

The order centers around the deadline in which Willis had to respond, with Willis being served on March 11 and a return of service being filed two days later. However, the latter document did not appear on the court’s electronic docket. In April the court, "believing that Defendant had not yet been served," filed an order directing Judicial Watch to serve the defendant, who refiled the return that showed Willis had been served on March 11.

Willis claimed that "she relied on the Court’s 15 April 2024 Order directing Plaintiff to serve her and so did not immediately file an answer because of her 'understanding that service had not been perfected,’" and that the court’s April 15 filing required the plaintiffs to serve her for a second time, the plaintiffs had not yet done so, and that she was therefore not required to respond yet.

"The Court finds Defendant is in default and has been since 11 April 2024. As already mentioned, it is undisputed that Defendant was served on 11 March 2024 and that Plaintiff filed the return of service on 13 March 2024. While it is true that that return did not immediately appear on the Court’s electronic docket, this delay does not change the fact that Plaintiff filed it -- and that it was stamped as received by the Clerk -- on 13 March 2024. Because the return was filed within five days of service, Defendant was required to answer within thirty days of service, which would have been 10 April 2024," the court order stated.

"Lest any of this appear unfair to Defendant -- who arguably was without notice that Plaintiff had filed the return of service on 13 March 2024 until 15 April 2024 when Plaintiff again filed it and the Clerk caused the original 13 March filing to appear in the docket -- Defendant could have opened her default as a matter of right on 15 April 2024 or soon thereafter, as she remained well within the fifteen-day grace period established by O.C.G.A. § 9-11-55(a). Moreover, even had she delayed and filed her motion to open default outside the fifteen-day statutory grace period, Defendant would have had a compelling case for opening her default on any of the three statutory grounds."

The order added, "But Defendant did none of that: she never moved to open default on any basis (not even during the period when she could have opened default as a matter of right), she never paid costs, and she never offered up a meritorious defense," and said that the plaintiffs are entitled to default judgment "as if every item and paragraph of the complaint were supported by proper and sufficient evidence."

Willis has been ordered to "conduct a diligent search of her records for responsive materials within five business days of the entry of this Order. Within that same five-day period, Defendant is ORDERED to provide Plaintiff with copies of all responsive records that are not legally exempted or excepted from disclosure."

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement following the order, "Fani Willis is something else. We’ve been doing this work for 30 years, and this is the first time in our experience a government official has been found in default for not showing up in court to answer an open records lawsuit. Judicial Watch looks forward to getting any documents from the Fani Willis operation about collusion with the Biden administration and Nancy Pelosi’s Congress on her unprecedented and compromised ‘get-Trump’ prosecution."

The suit stated that Willis’ "representation about not having records responsive to the request is likely false," with Judicial Watch noting that a December 5, 2023 letter from House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan to Willis cited a December 2021 letter from Willis to Bennie Thompson, then head of the January 6 Committee.