Georgia senators question Fani Willis over Trump prosecution

ATLANTA — The showdown between Fani Willis and a Republican-led Georgia state Senate committee over her conduct while prosecuting Donald Trump had loomed for months, and when it finally arrived Wednesday, Fulton County's Democratic district attorney was ready to fight.

“You all want to intimidate people from doing the right thing, and you think that you’re going to intimidate me," Willis told the committee. "You all have been trying to intimidate me for five years.”

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.

Republican Sen. Greg Dolezal spent much of the three-plus hours trying to get Willis to talk about details of the investigation and how her office works, but Willis frequently said she didn’t remember. At other times, she or her lawyer objected to the question and declined to answer, with Willis repeatedly calling the proceedings politically motivated “foolishness.” And more often than not, Willis used a question to launch a counterattack, proclaiming the purity of her motives and attacking those doing the investigating. A few times, senators shut off her microphone, only to have Willis keep talking.

“I think that she probably spent 80% of her time not answering the questions," Dolezal told reporters afterward.

The Republican-dominated state Senate in January 2024 created the Special Committee on Investigations to examine allegations of misconduct against Willis concerning her case seeking criminal convictions for efforts to overturn Trump's 2020 election loss in Georgia. The committee is supposed to be examining whether changes to state law are needed to bar future misconduct and doesn't have the power to sanction or prosecute Willis. But even before Trump embarked on a retribution campaign against his enemies, Democrats regarded the panel as a weapon for Republican to harass a Trump foe.

Thus far, the committee has turned up few new facts regarding Willis' activities. Trump has called Willis a "criminal" who should be "prosecuted" and "put in jail."

Republican-led committee has focused on Willis’ hiring of special prosecutor

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 the case is now defunct after Willis was removed and another prosecutor dismissed it.

Willis told Dolezal she hired Wade “because we were drowning” in other cases. “Every lawyer I had with that level of experience had a huge project,” Willis said.

“I made a decision, the people of Fulton County elected me to make that decision, and I did,” Willis said.

As Dolezal questioned how much Wade was paid, Willis listed out payments for lawyers from the Georgia attorney general, including prominent Republican lawyer Josh Belinfante, who advises the committee and was present.

State senator suggests Willis was working with Biden administration

Dolezal displayed documents showing that Wade and others traveled to Washington, in an effort to suggest that Willis was working with the House January 6 committee or the Biden White House to prosecute Trump.

Willis said Wade probably traveled to Washington to “get information on some of the criminals I ended up indicting.”

Willis said meetings with Biden White House officials were part of a procedure to request documents or testimony from the federal government. She defiantly proclaimed she had made the prosecution decisions herself.

“You’re trying to imply some wrongdoing where none exists,” said Roy Barnes, the former Democratic Georgia governor representing Willis.

After the meeting, Dolezal said Willis' office communicated both in person and via telephone with the Biden administration before presenting charges against Trump.

“We know they had an eight-hour phone call with the White House on the very same day that Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith a special prosecutor," he said. "We don’t know why. We don’t know what was discussed because suddenly people can’t remember anything.”

Elections loom over the committee

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, though he was unable to attend the hearing for medical reasons. 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.

Willis repeatedly asserted that the committee was attacking her for political gain: “This is about folks sitting here trying to get elected.”

But Willis herself sent out fundraising emails before and during the hearing. In a Wednesday morning email, Willis’ reelection campaign accused the committee of “trying to dig up dirt, slow us down, and distract Fani Willis from her job.” The email asked people to pack the hearing room or send her a campaign donation, and many prominent Democrats were in the audience Wednesday.

Former Democratic governor representing Willis says it's a 'witch hunt'

Barnes counseled Willis against answering some questions and also engaged in some heated exchanges with Dolezal, at one point saying, “This is a witch hunt. This has always been a witch hunt.”

Willis' prosecution of Trump 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.