The ruling on Tuesday that the embattled district attorney of Fulton County, Fani Willis, is required to disclose any correspondence she has had with Special Counsel Jack Smith and the House January 6 Committee is another setback for the Peach State prosecutor trying to convict President Trump. 

The order came from Judge Robert McBurney, a Fulton County jurist. He granted a public records request from a conservative legal organization, Judicial Watch. Ms. Willis’s office has five days to complete that request by turning over all “documents and communications sent to, received from, or relating to Special Counsel Jack Smith.” 

Ms. Willis is also obligated to surface all “documents and communications sent to or received from the United States House January 6th Committee.” Judge McBurney found that her earlier claim that she did “not have the responsive records” was inaccurate. The judge determined that Ms. Willis’s office “is in default and has been since 11 April 2024” with respect to its obligations.

Judicial Watch first filed its lawsuit in March after Ms. Willis claimed not to possess the relevant documents following a Georgia Open Records Act request that was submitted in August 2023. That lawsuit alleged — and Judge McBurney has now ruled — that Ms. Willis’s “representation about not having records responsive to the request is likely false.” The default judgment secured by Judicial Watch determines that Ms. Willis “never paid costs, and she never offered up a meritorious defense.” 

Judge McBurney ruled that Ms. Willis’s responsiveness was so deficient that Judicial Watch is “entitled to judgment by default as if every item and paragraph of the complaint were supported by proper and sufficient evidence.” The district attorney now has five days to turn over all documents that “are not legally exempted or excepted from disclosure.” A further hearing is set for December 20, when Judge McBurney will rule if Ms. Willis’s office owes Judicial Watch attorney’s fees.

In July 2023 — before Ms. Willis secured an indictment against Trump and 18 others for racketeering and other crimes — she denied coordinating with Mr. Smith. She told an Atlanta radio station: “I don’t know what Jack Smith is doing and Jack Smith doesn’t know what I’m doing. In all honesty, if Jack Smith was standing next to me, I’m not sure I would know who he was. My guess is he probably can’t pronounce my name correctly.”

There is some evidence, though, of coordination between Atlanta and the District of Columbia. Payment receipts from Ms. Willis’s handpicked special prosecutor — and former boyfriend — Nathan Wade disclose that he met on multiple occasions with attorneys at the White House. Mr. Wade billed a fairly standard rate of $250 an hour for those colloquies, though it is not known what was discussed. Ms. Willis faces disqualification from the case over her relationship with Mr. Wade, conduct that another Georgia judge reckoned emitted an “odor of mendacity.”   

The ruling that Ms. Willis is in default comes on the same day that a jury acquitted of murder the final two defendants of hers in the yearslong racketeering and conspiracy case against a rapper who goes by the name Young Thug and his associates. That ends the longest trial in Georgia’s history on a disappointing note for the prosecutor. Young Thug reached a deal where he was released from jail with his 40-year sentence commuted to time served and 15 years of probation.

Tuesday was a busy day at Fulton County. A judge also heard arguments from a Georgia senate subcommittee over whether Ms. Willis can be subpoenaed and forced to provide testimony and documents related to her election interference case. Ms. Willis seeks a permanent injunction to block the senate. She previously told Fox 5 that she “will not appear to anything that is unlawful, and I have not broken the law. I’ve said it amongst these leaders, I’m sorry folks get pissed off that everybody gets treated equally.”

The president of Judicial Watch, Tom Fitton, in a statement declared: “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.”