In a surprising development in the Fanni Willis case, a recently surfaced audio recording has revealed that a whistleblower privately warned Fanni Willis about her top aide’s misuse of federal funds.
In 2021, Amanda Timpson, an employee of the Fulton County DA, informed Willis about the aide’s plan to use a federal grant of $488,000, which was intended for the creation of a Center of Youth Empowerment and Gang Prevention, to buy “swag,” computers, and travel expenses. However, Fanni Willis completely disregarded the warnings. She neither denied the allegations nor reported the aide. Instead, less than two months later, she dismissed the whistleblower.
The Free Beacon reported that:
Fani 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, according to Timpson. When Timpson filed a whistleblower complaint the following year that alleged wrongful termination, Willis’s office issued a statement describing Timpson as a “holdover from the prior administration” who was terminated because of her “failure to meet the standards of the new administration.”
Timpson’s experience sheds further light on how Willis—who campaigned on the promise of restoring “integrity” to the district attorney’s office—does business. The Democrat has come under fire amid revelations that she tapped her lover, Nathan Wade, to handle the office’s racketeering case against former president Donald Trump. Willis is also alleged to have misappropriated taxpayer funds to facilitate her affair with Wade, a married man with scant prosecutorial experience.
The Washington Examiner also commented on the report:
Fani Willis, the Fulton County District Attorney prosecuting former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election subversion case, fired an employee who warned her about misusing federal funds, according to a new leaked audio tape.
Willis is facing fresh allegations of abdicating her responsibilities after a newly surfaced audio recording revealed a whistleblower privately warned in November 2021 that her top campaign aide was attempting to misuse federal funds, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
During the conversation, then-employee Amanda Timpson told Willis that campaign aide Michael Cuffee intended to use part of a $488,000 federal grant, which was intended to counter local gang activity, to pay for unrelated matters such as computers and travel expenses.
“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.”
Willis later apologized to Timpson during their discussion, admitting that Cuffee “failed” her administration. But just 56 days later, the district attorney fired Timpson and had her escorted out of her office by seven armed investigators, Timpson told the Free Beacon.
