Just how politicized is Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' office and her prosecution of Donald Trump and 18 other Republicans? It's been obvious since day one that this prosecution is all about politics, but in the last few days we've learned specific details about Willis' conflicts of interest and her office's apparent collusion with the White House. However, there's now even more unethical behavior to report out of Willis' office.
In May 2022, right around the time Willis seated a grand jury to investigate Donald Trump, a new part-time employee showed up at the office. Her title was innocuous enough: Records and Documents Supervisor. But this wasn't your average bureaucratic employee, and she didn't work as a records and documents supervisor. The new hire, Pallavi Purkayastha, is a DNC Member, one of the top leaders in the Georgia Democrat Party, and in reality performs spokesperson/comms duties. Indeed, she is the spokesperson cited in response to a recent court filing by defendant Michael Roman alleging an improper romantic relationship between Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
In addition, at the time she was hired she was the fiancee of (and is now married to) Charlie Bailey, the 2022 Democrat nominee for Lieutenant Governor, and chairs a local PAC called Red Clay Democrats.
The June 2022 edition of the "DA Dispatch," the Fulton County DA's office newsletter, details Purkayastha's political resume.
If the name Charlie Bailey rings a bell, it's because there was a bit of a scandal during the summer of 2022 related to Willis and Bailey's opponent, then-state Sen. Burt Jones. Willis hosted a fundraiser for Bailey in June, 2022, then in July sent a target letter to Jones related to the Trump criminal investigation. Jones filed a motion objecting to Willis' office investigation given her clear support for his rival, which was granted by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney:
“An investigation of this significance, garnering the public attention it necessarily does and touching so many political nerves in our society, cannot be burdened by legitimate doubts about the District Attorney’s motives,” McBurney wrote. “The District Attorney does not have to be apolitical, but her investigations do.”
During a hearing...McBurney called the optics of Willis’ fundraiser “horrific” and worried they could undermine public confidence in the investigation.
He wrote Monday that while Willis was within her rights as an elected official to sponsor a fundraiser, her decision “has consequences.”
“This scenario creates a plain — and actual and untenable — conflict,” McBurney wrote. “Any decision the District Attorney makes about Senator Jones in connection with the grand jury investigation is necessarily infected by it."
At the time, Willis said she'd hosted the fundraiser and supported Bailey because of their time working together in the Fulton DA's office, but didn't bother to mention that his fiancee worked for her. Imagine if Willis' office had been allowed to continue the investigation - anything learned in the office would have likely been passed straight to Jones' opponent.
DNC Member Pallavi Purkayastha Bailey and her husband, 2022 Democrat nominee for GA Lt. Governor Charlie Bailey, with Fulton County DA Fani Willis in December, 2021.
It's difficult to believe that as a sitting DNC member she's not inappropriately using the information she has access to in the office.
Purkayastha wasn't the only employee in Willis' office who was concurrently professionally involved in partisan politics. Her boss, Jeffrey Disantis, is listed on personnel records as a Deputy District Attorney and Media Relations Director with a salary of $162,000 in 2022. Disantis was one of Willis' first hires; his start date is January 6,2021. He is extremely connected in the Democrat party nationally (former DNC Deputy Director of Compliance, Clinton White House, etc, etc.) and the owner of 20/20 Insight, a media firm.
Since January 1, 2021, 20/20 Insight has received more than $2.3 million just from federal campaign committees, including the Senate Majority PAC, according to FEC records. Disantis' partner at 20/20 Insight was the head media buyer for the Biden/Harris campaign and ran its local TV media strategy operation.
According to Fulton County's employee manual, this type of outside employment is not allowed. Fulton County Personnel Policy Number 320-16 reads:
While Fulton County does not prohibit employees from holding other jobs, the following types of outside employment are prohibited:
- Employment that conflicts with the employee’s work schedule, duties and responsibilities or creates an actual or perceived conflict of interest;
There's an overwhelming amount of evidence at this point that Willis' office is being operated in an entirely unethical and partisan manner, including multiple avenues for coordination with the White House and the Democratic National Committee, and every indictment coming out of the tainted process should be dismissed.
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