Georgia Senate committee questions Fani Willis over Trump prosecution

ATLANTA (AP) — After more than a year of legal maneuvering, Fani Willis is facing questions Wednesday from a Georgia state Senate committee over her prosecution of Donald Trump.

The hearing began with Sen. Greg Dolezal, the committee vice chair, questioning Fulton County’s Democratic district attorney about her background and the makeup of her office.

The Republican-dominated state Senate in January 2024 created the Special Committee on Investigation to examine allegations of misconduct against Willis concerning her case seeking criminal convictions for efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia. Even before Trump embarked on a retribution campaign against his enemies, Republicans on the Georgia committee were eager to bring Willis in for questioning.

In an email to supporters Wednesday morning, Willis’ reelection campaign accused the committee of “trying to dig up dirt, slow us down, and distract Fani Willis from her job.”

The email asks people to pack the hearing room in the Capitol or to send her a campaign donation.

“We want to make today — the day they tried to tear her down — our single biggest fundraising day of the year,” it says. “Let’s turn their political stunt into a massive show of grassroots strength.”

When Willis announced the indictment against Trump and 18 others in August 2023, she used the state’s anti-racketeering law to allege a conspiracy to try to illegally overturn Trump’s narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

Republicans didn’t like that, but the committee has focused on Willis’ hiring of special prosecutor Nathan Wade to lead the election interference case. The resolution creating the committee said a romantic relationship between the two amounted to a “clear conflict of interest and a fraud upon the taxpayers.” But now the case is defunct after Willis was removed and another prosecutor dismissed it. Thus far, the committee has turned up few new facts regarding Willis’ activities. And she may choose to be guarded after Trump called Willis a “criminal” who should be “prosecuted” and “put in jail.”

Democrats have decried the panel as a partisan time-waster driven by political ambition. Four Republicans on the committee are running for statewide office in 2026. Chairman Bill Cowsert of Athens is running for attorney general, while Sens. Dolezal of Cumming, Blake Tillery of Vidalia and Steve Gooch of Dahlonega are each seeking the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. Another Republican who had been on the committee, John Kennedy of Macon, resigned from the Senate last week to pursue his own bid for lieutenant governor.

Amid a court battle over the committee’s power to order her to appear, Willis didn’t show up last year when subpoenaed. A judge agreed that Willis couldn’t ignore the subpoena, and her lawyers worked out an agreement for Willis to appear when the subpoena was reissued this year.

But Roy Barnes, the former Democratic Georgia governor representing Willis, told state Supreme Court justices last week in a hearing over the validity of an earlier subpoena that there may be limits to what Willis will answer.

“You can’t just pick somebody out and say, ‘We’re going to embarrass you; we’re going to try you; we’re going to harass you,’” Barnes told justices. “So we’ll make an appropriate objection at the time. I’m not a potted plant.”

Willis’ prosecution began to fall apart in January 2024, when a defense attorney in the case alleged that Willis was involved in an improper romantic relationship with Wade.

In an extraordinary hearing, both Willis and Wade testified about the intimate details of their relationship. They both vehemently denied allegations that it constituted a conflict of interest.

The trial judge chided Willis for a “tremendous lapse in judgment,” ultimately ruling that Willis could remain on the case if Wade resigned, which he did hours later.

But after defense attorneys appealed, the Georgia Court of Appeals cited an “appearance of impropriety” and removed Willis from the case. The state Supreme Court in September declined to hear Willis’ appeal.