ATLANTA — The Atlanta-area prosecutor who has brought criminal charges against former president Donald Trump issued a scathing letter Thursday to the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, accusing him of trying to obstruct her office’s criminal racketeering case against Trump and 18 allies.

In the letter, Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis accused Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, of “an unjustified and illegal intrusion into an open state criminal prosecution” with his own recent letter demanding records related to the investigation and indictment of Trump and his allies on charges, alleging that they illegally plotted to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis at a news conference in Atlanta on Aug. 14. Joshua Lott/The Washington Post

“Your attempt to invoke congressional authority to intrude upon and interfere with an active criminal case in Georgia is flagrantly at odds with the Constitution,” Willis wrote in the nine-page letter, which accuses Jordan of lacking a “basic understanding of the law,” including the law regarding state sovereignty.

“Your public statements and your letter itself make clear that you lack any legitimate legislative purpose for that inquiry,” Willis added. “Your job description as a legislator does not include criminal law enforcement, nor does it include supervising a specific criminal trial because you believe that doing so will promote your partisan political objectives.”

In his Aug. 24 letter, Jordan, a longtime Trump ally, had questioned whether Willis coordinated her probe with the Justice Department – including special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing two other cases in which Trump has been criminally charged. Jordan demanded to know whether Willis’s office had used federal funds to pay for the investigation and suggested that the case was “politically motivated.”

“Many have speculated that this indictment and prosecution are designed to interfere with the 2024 presidential election,” Jordan wrote in the letter, which also included a demand for “all documents and communications” between the district attorney’s office and “any federal executive branch officials” about the 2020 election interference investigation.

Jordan sent a similar demand this year to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office indicted Trump on charges he falsified business records in connection with alleged hush money payments to an adult-film actress.

In her response, Willis called Jordan’s letter “unconstitutional” and “offensive.”

“Its obvious purpose is to obstruct a Georgia criminal proceeding and to advance outrageous partisan misrepresentations,” Willis wrote. “There is no justification in the Constitution for Congress to interfere with a state criminal matter, as you attempt to do.

“The defendants in this case have been charged under state law with committing state crimes. There is absolutely no support for Congress purporting to second guess or somehow supervise an ongoing Georgia criminal investigation and prosecution,” Willis added.

Willis suggested that Jordan’s questions about how she had prosecuted the case “shows a total ignorance of Georgia’s racketeering statute and the basics of criminal conspiracy law.”

“I encourage you to read ‘RICO State-by-State,’ Willis wrote, referring to a book by John Floyd, a special prosecutor on the 2020 election case. “As a non-member of the bar, you can purchase a copy for two hundred forty-nine dollars [$249].”

The back-and-forth came amid continued legal wrangling over how and when Trump and his 18 co-defendants will be tried in the sprawling racketeering case. On Wednesday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee set an Oct. 23 trial date for two people charged in the case: former Trump campaign attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, who invoked their rights to a speedy trial.

Willis and her team are still seeking to try all 19 defendants together beginning next month. McAfee, who has appeared openly skeptical of that proposal, gave prosecutors until Tuesday to file a brief making their case for a joint trial to begin next month. Prosecutors have estimated a four-month trial, not including jury selection, that will include testimony from more than 150 witnesses.

Five Trump associates charged in the conspiracy are seeking to move their cases to federal court, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. On Thursday, Steve Sadow, an attorney for Trump, filed notice in state court that the former president “may” seek to move his case to federal court as well – a decision that he suggested would be made in coming weeks.

In her letter to Jordan, Willis suggested that “the safety of persons serving in the criminal justice system” should instead be the priority of the House Judiciary Committee. She included pages of racist and threatening emails, letters and social media messages that she and her office had received since last month’s indictments – including one that referred to her as a “dead black monkey” and “n—– trash.”

Willis also included a copy of an Aug. 31 arrest warrant issued in Fulton County Superior Court for a man who repeatedly sent threatening emails to her. According to an affidavit, the man repeatedly used racial slurs – including the n-word – in reference to Willis.

“I am providing these examples to give you a window into what has happened to my staff and me as I keep my oath to the United States and Georgia Constitutions and do not allow myself to be bullied and threatened by members of Congress, local elected officials or others,” Willis wrote.