(11alive) It’s a win for the Merchant Law Firm, which challenged Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office in an open records dispute.
On Tuesday, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that district attorneys in the state can be sued under the Open Records Act, upholding Judge Rachel Krause’s ruling in favor of the firm from Monday.
The judge ruled in favor because she said the district attorney’s office failed to timely provide the requested documents. According to Krause, the law firm is owed those documents and will be awarded attorneys’ fees.
It stemmed from a lawsuit in which Ashleigh Merchant accused the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office of violating the state’s Open Records Act.
The lawsuit accused Willis of “hiding documents” related to a media monitoring company, alleging the district attorney had used taxpayer dollars to pay for it. It also accused the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office of not wholly fulfilling open records related to employees’ nondisclosure agreements.
“She is the elected DA. It’s her office. I think that every government agency has a duty to respond to open records requests. I think when you have an elected official, they are the ones who are held accountable by the public. They are the ones who set the policy,” Merchant, who is Trump co-defendant Michael Roman’s lawyer in the election interference case, said on Monday while testifying on the stand in the case.
However, the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office stated that the office could not legally be sued under the Open Records Act due to wording in the state constitution and claimed the lawsuit was harassment.
How it’s related
The two separate cases challenge the legal authority district attorneys in the state have over being named in a lawsuit.
The Supreme Court gave an opinion on Gonzalez vs. Miller, a lawsuit against the Athens Clarke County District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez regarding open records. In the lawsuit, Gonzalez stated that her office could not be sued loosely on the basis of the Georgia Constitution.
It’s a similar argument that the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office attempted to make throughout the open records case against the Merchant Law Firm but failed with the judge’s ruling.
