Top Georgia Republicans shut down GOP attack on Trump prosecutor

• Trump was indicted earlier in August by Fulton County DA Fani Willis on 13 counts of interference in the 2020 election.
• He pleaded not guilty on Thursday.

Driving the news: Despite calls from some Republicans, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said Thursday he won't call a special session to investigate Willis.

• "Up to this point, I have not seen any evidence that DA Willis' actions or lack thereof warrant action by the prosecuting attorney oversight commission," he told reporters.
• "As long as I am governor, we're going to follow the law and the Constitution, regardless of who it helps or harms politically," Kemp said.
• Kemp won his reelection campaign in 2022 by more than 300,000 votes, significantly outpacing Trump's 2020 performance in the state.

Kemp's statements followed a letter Wednesday from Georgia's Republican House Speaker Jon Burns, who said that calls to defund Willis' office "flaunts the idea of separation of powers, if not outright violates it."

• "[W]e continue to have a few members of the General Assembly making misleading or false claims about the General Assembly's lawful powers regarding an ongoing criminal case before our Judiciary," he wrote.

Zoom in: Trump has repeatedly attacked Kemp since the 2020 elections, including last week when he wrote that Kemp "is fighting hard" against the Willis impeachment effort.

• The in-state effort to target Willis is being led by GOP state Senator Colton Moore, who called for an emergency session on Willis in a letter to Kemp on Aug. 17.

The bottom line: Georgia Republicans are more likely than nationwide Republicans to tell pollsters they take the charges against Trump seriously, as The Washington Post noted.