Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns poured cold water on his Republican colleagues' efforts to defund Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' office, saying that doing so "flaunts the idea of separation of power, if not outright violates it."
In a Wednesday memo sent to the Georgia's GOP House caucus, Burns addressed the calls from some of his members to oust Willis, writing that, "unfortunately, we continue to have a few members of the General Assembly making misleading or false claims about the General Assembly's lawful powers regarding an ongoing criminal case before our Judiciary.
"A select few are calling to defund a duly-elected district attorney of this state and her office in an attempt to interfere with the criminal justice system. It is unfortunate some would knowingly suggest such a reckless course of action despite the devastating effects it would have."
Several Georgia Republicans have joined former President Donald Trump in his attacks against Willis, who unsealed a sweeping RICO indictment this month that named Trump as a co-defendant. Trump is facing 13 counts in Georgia for his alleged efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
State Senator Colton Moore, for example, asked Governor Brian Kemp to call for a special session, urging him to bring legislators back to work to investigate the charges brought by Willis. Kemp has refused to comment on the case, telling radio host Erick Erickson this month that "Democrats want us to be focused on things like this so we're not focused on Joe Biden's record."
Newsweek reached out to Moore via email for comment.
Georgia's General Assembly has not impeached anyone in more than 50 years, and with less than two-thirds of the required state Senate majority, Republicans would need Democratic support to do so.
In his memo addressing the calls to defund and impeach Willis, Burns called out the hypocrisy of his colleagues, saying that taking funds away from the district attorney would further hurt the prosecution of criminal cases in Atlanta that Republicans have made a key issue and that even Trump has tried to wield as an argument against Willis.
"Regardless of your views of this case, removing this funding would also have the unintended consequence of causing a delay or complete lack of prosecution of other serious offenses like murder, rape, armed robbery, gang prosecution, batter, etc.," he wrote. "If we are concerned about the levels of serious crime in Atlanta, this move would obviously be harmful to the public safety."
In a Truth Social post accusing Kemp of "fighting hard against the impeachment of the crooked incompetent & highly partisan D.A. of Fulton County," Trump blasted Willis for allowing violent crime to "MASSIVELY ESCALATE."
"Crime in Atlanta is WORST IN NATION. She should be impeached for many reasons, not just the Witch Hunt (I did nothing wrong!)" the former president wrote last week.
