Fulton County DA Fani Willis Is the Subject of an Ethics Complaint Over Campaign Finances

Published on March 9, 2024

The Georgia State Ethics Commission has notified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis of a complaint filed against her alleging that she violated the Georgia Government Transparency and Finance Act. The complaint was submitted last month by computer analyst Peter Bernegger, president of Election Watch, a grassroots national election integrity watchdog group. Among other things, the complaint alleges that the Willis for DA committee was and continues to be the beneficiary of a campaign finance scam called “smurfing.” Smurfing is a fund-transfer mechanism by which big money donors contribute large sums to a PAC or donation processing organization, that, in turn, breaks down their legal, large-sum donations into hundreds and even thousands of small contributions and distributes them among favored political campaigns or ballot initiatives around the country....