Willis grilled by Georgia Senate over dismissed 2020 election case
Fulton County District Attorney Fani willis was questioned for hours by a Georgia Senate Special Committee regarding her handling of the now-dismissed 2020 election-related Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) case against former President Donald Trump and his allies. The hearing took place nearly two years after the committee’s creation and shortly after the case was dismissed.
During the session, Willis defended her decisions and criticized the committee, emphasizing that she was elected by Fulton County residents to make prosecutorial choices. She faced scrutiny over her hiring of special prosecutor Nathan Wade, with whom she had a romantic relationship, a factor that contributed to the derailment of the case. Willis was also questioned about a 2022 trip by her staff to washington,D.C., including meetings with the House Jan.6 Committee, but she coudl not recall details of those interactions.
Willis criticized committee members and accused them of political motives, including suspicions that Republican state Sen. Greg Dolezal sought to use the inquiry for his own political gain. The RICO case, which began with indictments in August 2023, was eventually dismissed after a judge ruled that either Willis or Wade had to step away due to their relationship. Appeals courts later disqualified Willis and her office from prosecuting the case, and after no other office took over, the case was formally dismissed in November 2024.
Defiant Fani Willis grilled by Georgia Senate committee over dismissed 2020 election case
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis faced hours of questioning from a Georgia Senate committee on Wednesday about her office and their handling of the now-dismissed 2020 election case against President Donald Trump and his allies.
Willis appeared before the Georgia Senate Special Committee on Investigations nearly two years after it was created amid the Fulton County district attorney’s prosecution of Trump. The hearing came less than a month after the dismissal of the sweeping Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act case against the president and his allies over their alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.
Committee vice chairman and Republican state Sen. Greg Dolezal asked the questions for the GOP majority on the panel, ranging from the hiring practices of her office to her prosecution of the Trump anti-racketeering case. Willis evaded many of the questions asked by Dolezal, slamming the committee and defending her decisions as district attorney.
“The people of Fulton County elected me to make those decisions. And I know y’all want to come in and be daddy and create QAnon committees that will judge prosecutors and have these committees,” Willis said, pointing to her recent election results.
“So the people of Fulton County have selected me to make these choices, and I make them, and my city and county are safer because I make them,” she added.
Willis was questioned about her selection of Nathan Wade as a special prosecutor, a decision which ultimately derailed the prosecution of the RICO case after it was revealed that Willis and Wade had a romantic relationship.
She was also questioned about an April 2022 trip to Washington, D.C., by people in her office, which included a meeting with the now-defunct House Jan. 6 Committee. The district attorney claimed she did not recall who her staff spoke with in D.C. during that trip, after previously defending efforts to get information from beyond Fulton County.
“You’ll have to remember the criminals that I indicted, they had committed crimes all over the country, and so as a result, as a prosecutor, if you know that a criminal has done crimes in this state and other states, it would almost not be due diligence to try to get information from them,” Willis said.
The Fulton County district attorney also threw jabs at the vice chairman of the committee and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who has also investigated Willis after she pushed forward in her prosecution of Trump. She accused Dolezal of seeking to advance his 2026 bid for lieutenant governor and also asked him if he was working with Jordan. Dolezal replied that he has never spoken to Jordan.
Willis’s prosecution of Trump began in August 2023, when a grand jury indicted the president, Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, and more than a dozen other Trump allies over their alleged plot to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. Within months of the indictment, defense attorneys surfaced Willis’s romantic relationship with Wade.
JUDGE DISMISSES RICO CASE AGAINST TRUMP IN FULTON COUNTY, GEORGIA
The relationship Willis had with Wade led to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruling in March 2024 that either Wade or Willis would have to leave the prosecution for it to continue. The Georgia Court of Appeals later ruled on appeal in December 2024 that Willis and her office would be disqualified from prosecuting the case. The Georgia Supreme Court denied Willis’s bid to be allowed back on the case.
With Willis’s office disqualified, Peter Skandalakis, director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, attempted to find another office to take on the case. Unable to do so, Skandalakis himself later had to take on the case. Skandalakis requested the case be dismissed on Nov. 26, a request that McAfee quickly granted.
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