The prosecutor behind Donald Trump's criminal case in Georgia consulted with the January 6th committee in the early days of her investigation.
According to Politico, aides from the January 6th committee met with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis beginning in April 2022.
The partisan committee, which consisted of all Democrats and two anti-Trump Republicans, communicated with Willis over the course of months and helped her prepare interviews with key witnesses.
The evidence the committee shared ultimately shaped the charges in her indictment, which accused Trump and 18 others of a broad "conspiracy" to undermine the 2020 election through "fake electors" and pressure on public officials.
“To me, that’s a highly unusual level of specific cooperation,” Sol Wisenberg, a former prosecutor who worked on Ken Starr’s Clinton probe, said. "They're using what’s supposed to be a congressional investigation in aid of a prosecution.”
Willis began her probe with a special grand jury, which lacked the power to bring charges. That allowed the January 6th committee to coordinate with Willis without fear the evidence would be shared with any defendants.
The arrangement made the committee "comfortable" to cooperate with Willis, even as it refused requests to share material with Biden's Justice Department.
The committee feared the evidence would wind up in the hands of January 6th defendants.
The new details raise doubts about the integrity of Willis' prosecution and its independence from Joe Biden.
Willis is already under fire for an alleged affair with a top prosecutor on the case, Nathan Wade, who was paid over $600,000 to go after Trump.
Invoices from Wade show that he billed meetings at the Biden White House and with the January 6th committee.
Willis was subpoenaed Monday to answer questions in the divorce proceedings between Wade and his estranged wife, who accused him of leaving her without financial support even as Wade took Willis on expensive vacations.
The trips were allegedly paid for with the lucrative earnings from Wade's work on the Trump case.
Trump has said Willis is "compromised" and her case should be thrown out.
“They went after 18 or 20 people. … She was out of her mind. Now it turns out that case is totally compromised," he said Tuesday.
