In newly published audio, an employee warned Georgia‘s Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in November 2021 about the potential misuse of federal funds just weeks before the worker was fired.
The staffer, Amanda Timpson, can be heard in roughly two minutes of a longer conversation published by the Washington Free Beacon on Wednesday telling Willis about a clash with her manager, Michael Cuffee, about his alleged plans to do “impossible” things with grant money.
Timpson suggested Cuffee took her off projects because she “questioned” him about money allocated for a gang prevention initiative, and she feared retaliation because Cuffee allegedly claimed Willis told him “everything.”
BREAKING: @FreeBeacon has obtained audio of a whistleblower privately warning Fani Willis in 2021 that her top aide was trying to misuse federal funds.
Willis did not dispute the allegations.
56 days later, Willis fired the whistleblower and perp walked her out of the office. pic.twitter.com/YEkKIB2L5f
— Andrew Kerr (@AndrewKerrNC) January 31, 2024
Willis told Timpson she respected her “assessment,” noting that she was not saying it was “wrong.” The prosecutor also said she was “sorry that you felt that way” in regard to an apparent intimidation tactic and expressed that multiple supervisors had “failed” her.
The district attorney fired Timpson less than two months later, after which Timpson began taking legal action against Willis and her office — including a whistleblower complaint that alleged wrongful termination. A spokesperson for Willis has said an “inadequate” performance led to the firing.
Although the Free Beacon said that neither Willis nor her office responded to a request for comment, Cuffee reportedly told the news outlet that he proposed taking money from a different fund to pay for computers.
Cuffee, who noted he left the DA’s office in December 2021 for “personal” reasons, decried what he said was a “money grab for Timpson.”
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Willis is now leading a racketeering and election interference case against former President Donald Trump and others. The defendants have pleaded not guilty, and the trial against the former president is slated to begin during the heart of the 2024 election cycle in which he seeks another term in the White House.
The prosecutor, who is a Democrat, is facing controversy over allegations that she got involved in an inappropriate relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired to manage the RICO case, and misspent taxpayer dollars on lavish trips with him.
Timpson told the Free Beacon that she can see a “pattern” between the Wade matter and her own. “Ethical violations, abuse of power, and the misuse of county, state, and federal funds,” she said.