US DOJ seeks information on Georgia prosecutor Willis, NYT reports

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(Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Justice has issued a subpoena for records related to the travel history of Fani Willis, the Atlanta area prosecutor who charged President Donald Trump in an election interference case, The New York Times reported on Friday.

The Times said that it was not clear whether Willis is the target of the inquiry or whether she will ultimately face charges.

Representatives for Willis and the DOJ did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, charged Trump and 18 of his allies in 2023 with conspiring to undo his narrow defeat in the battleground state in the 2020 election. The defendants include former Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

But the Georgia prosecution, once seen as a significant legal threat to Trump, ran aground when an appeals court disqualified Willis from the case and ruled that her romantic relationship with a former top deputy, Nathan Wade, created “a significant appearance of impropriety.” Georgia’s Supreme Court declined to review the case earlier this month.

The DOJ filed criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey on Thursday, in a dramatic escalation of Trump’s retribution campaign against his political enemies.

Trump has threatened to imprison his political rivals since he first ran for president in 2015. The DOJ in his second term is also investigating other antagonists, including New York state Attorney General Letitia James and John Bolton, who was a national security official in Trump’s first term.

(Reporting by Jasper Ward, Ismail Shakil; Editing by William Mallard)