Fani Willis Axed Employee Who Blew Whistle on Misuse of Federal Funds
Andrew Kerr | January 31, 2024Fani Willis may have fired the employee who warned her about mishandling federal funds. But she didn't deny her allegations.
Less than a year into her tenure as Fulton County district attorney, in 2021, Willis met with Amanda Timpson, an employee in the district attorney's office responsible for giving nonviolent juvenile offenders "alternatives to the juvenile court system." During their conversation, a recording of which was reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon, Timpson claimed to Willis that she had been demoted after attempting to stop a top Willis campaign aide from misusing federal grant money meant for a youth gang prevention initiative.
According to Timpson, the aide, Michael Cuffee, planned to use part of a $488,000 federal grant—earmarked for the creation of a Center of Youth Empowerment and Gang Prevention—to pay for "swag," computers, and travel.
"He wanted to do things with grants that were impossible, and I kept telling him, like, 'We can't do that,'" Timpson told Willis in a Nov. 19, 2021, meeting. "He told everybody … 'We're going to get MacBooks, we're going to get swag, we're going to use it for travel.' I said, 'You cannot do that, it's a very, very specific grant.'"
"I respect that is your assessment," Willis responded. "And I'm not saying that your assessment is wrong."
Later in the conversation, Willis apologized to Timpson, and said Cuffee had "failed" her administration.
Less than two months later, Willis abruptly terminated Timpson and had her escorted out of her office by seven armed investigators . . .
https://freebeacon.com/democrats/fani-willis-axed-employee-who-blew-whistle-on-misuse-of-federal-funds/