Fani Willis refuses to disclose Jack Smith and Jan. 6 records, dealing a blow to conservative watchdogs.

The Fulton County District Attorney's Office refused to release any new communications between District Attorney Fani Willis and former Trump Special Counsel Jack Smith, stating in a new court filing that the documents either do not exist or are protected under Georgia law.

Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group, shared an update on Tuesday about their lawsuit against Willis. In March, they sued Willis after her office denied having any records of communication between Willis and Smith or between Willis and the House January 6th Committee.

The House Select Committee and Smith were both probing alleged attempts by Trump and his allies to undermine the 2020 election results, which drew the scrutiny of Judicial Watch and other conservative groups.

Judge Robert McBurney of the Fulton County Superior Court ordered Willis to provide any records of communication with either Smith or the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 within five business days, ruling in favor of Judicial Watch in determining that Willis had violated the state's open records act by not responding to the lawsuit.

For her part, Willis stated that she was not adequately served by the group.

The Fulton County Open Records Department claims that they conducted a thorough search but have not found any records of documents or communications between Willis and Smith, the special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 to investigate the alleged actions of former president Donald Trump.

The Open Records Department staff maintained that any records or documents between Willis and the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 are still "exempt" or "exempted from disclosure" to Judicial Watch under the Georgia Open Records Law, which safeguards against the release of documents or records that arose from an investigation, subsequent indictment, or prosecution in the ongoing case against Trump and his allies.

The scrutiny of Willis's actions by Republican lawmakers and conservative nonprofit groups has led to the filing.

The House Judiciary Committee, led by Republicans, has stated that Willis requested information from the January 6th Select Committee to be shared with her office, resulting in increased scrutiny of those communications.

In 2020, Trump and 18 others were charged with racketeering in Fulton County and pleaded not guilty to all charges related to the D.A.'s office's accusation of attempting to overturn the presidential election results.

The charges against Trump in Georgia were temporarily halted after his lawyers requested that Willis be removed from the case due to potential conflicts of interest.

Despite being president-elect, the charges against Trump in the state have not yet been officially dropped.

The case's status is that Smith has stopped all federal court proceedings against Trump after his re-election in 2024 and the longstanding Justice Department policy that prohibits U.S. prosecutors from filing federal criminal charges against a sitting president.

Planet Chronicle Digital’s Haley Chi-Sing contributed to this report.