Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is once again in hot water after the Biden Department of Justice uncovered "inconsistencies" in the offices' handling of federal grant funds allocated for the creation of a Center for Youth Empowerment and Gang Prevention in Atlanta.
As previously reported by the DC Enquirer, the allegation of improper use of the grant surfaced after an audio recording of a whistleblower, Amanda Timpson, went public. The audio includes a confrontation between Timpson and Willis about misusing a $488,000 federal grant. During the conversation, which took place on November 19, 2021, Timpson told Willis that she had been demoted after warning Willis's campaign aid, Michael Cuffee, about grant funds that could only be used for certain materials rather than luxury items like Macbook computers and other "swag."
Timpson explained that Cuffee took her off as a junior district attorney because she didn't want to go along with his plan to misuse the funds. "I didn't not want to do it. He made it look as if I wasn't doing what I needed to do because I questioned him. Because I knew for a fact Mr. Cuffee, respectfully, did not know what he was doing, period."
"He wanted to do things with grants that were impossible, and I kept telling him, like, 'We can't do that,'" Timpson told Willis. "He told everybody … 'We're going to get MacBooks, we're going to get swag, we're going to use it for travel.' I said, 'You cannot do that; it's a very, very specific grant.'"
In response to these concerns, Willis said, "I respect that is your assessment. It was clear to me that you and Cuffee were not getting along," Willis responded. "And I'm not saying that your assessment is wrong." Timpson explained that Cuffee is "dangerous" to Willis's administration, which only began less than a year before the conversation took place. Less than two months after her warning, according to Timpson, she was fired and escorted out of the office by armed personnel.
In response to the allegation, The Washington Free Beacon received the following from the DOJ: "During our review of the award to respond to this inquiry, we have noticed some inconsistencies in what Fulton County has reported to [the Federal Subaward Reporting System], and we are working with them to update their reporting accordingly."
In addition to receiving attention from the Justice Department, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) subpoenaed Willis' office and threatened to hold her in contempt of Congress if she did not comply by handing over the documents related to the federal grant.
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