ATLANTA (AP) — After more than a year of legal maneuvering,Fani Williswill face questions Wednesday from a Georgia state Senate committee overher prosecutionof Donald Trump.
The question is whether Fulton County's Democratic district attorney will answer any of them.
The Republican-dominated state Senate in January 2024 created the Special Committee on Investigation toexamine allegationsof misconduct against Willis concerning her case seeking criminal convictions for efforts to overturn Trump's 2020 election loss in Georgia. Even before Trumpembarked on a retribution campaignagainst his enemies, Republicans on the Georgia committee were eager to bring Willis in for questioning.
When Willis announced the indictment againstTrump and 18 othersin August 2023, she used the state'santi-racketeering lawto 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 ofspecial prosecutor Nathan Wadeto 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 prosecutordismissed it. Thus far, the committee has turned up few new facts regarding Willis' activities. And she may choose to be guarded after Trumpcalled Willisa "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. ChairmanBill Cowsertof Athens is running for attorney general, while Sens.Greg Dolezalof Cumming,Blake Tilleryof Vidalia andSteve Goochof 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 Senatelast week to pursue his own bid for lieutenant governor.
Amid a court battle over the committee's power to order her to appear, Willisdidn't show uplast 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 justiceslast week in a hearingover 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.
Inan 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 rulingthat Willis could remain on the case if Wade resigned,which he didhours later.
But after defense attorneys appealed, the Georgia Court of Appeals cited an "appearance of impropriety" andremoved Willis from the case. The state Supreme Court in Septemberdeclined to hear Willis' appeal.
