Georgia Senate Republicans laid out a roadmap on Wednesday of their investigation into Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
They homed in on the Democrat’s prior romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, a private attorney she hired to oversee the election interference case involving former President Donald Trump, as well as the way he was hired and billed for his work.
Defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant, who represents Trump co-defendant Michael Roman in the election case, testified under oath for more than three hours before a newly created investigative committee about her ongoing efforts to remove Willis from the prosecution in Fulton Superior Court.
State Sen. Bill Cowsert, an Athens Republican and attorney who is leading the Special Committee on Investigations, asked Merchant questions for nearly the entire hearing. Senate Democratic Whip Harold Jones was given about 30 minutes to question Merchant at the end of the meeting.
Merchant said her motion to disqualify the district attorney and her office was “based on mostly the fact that Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade had a romantic relationship. And they had been traveling, and he had been paying for a lot of that travel.”
Wade has been paid upward of $728,000 for his work on the election interference case since he was hired in November 2021, according to county records.
Merchant’s testimony comes as Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ponders whether the prosecutors’ relationship should be considered a disqualifying conflict of interest. He has heard multiple days of witness testimony under oath and received mountains of other evidence in court filings since Merchant first made the allegations in early January.
While Merchant’s legislative testimony was largely a retread of issues she has raised before McAfee, it came this time without pushback from prosecutors.
The legislative committee has the ability to subpoena people and evidence, and it can require that testimony be given under oath. No other legislative committees require that witnesses testify under oath. Under the measure, if the committee finds there has been misconduct, it can recommend changes to state law, but there is little the committee can do to directly punish Willis.
Credit: Steve Schaefer/AJC
Credit: Steve Schaefer/AJC
Willis has been in the crosshairs of Senate Republicans since she brought an indictment against Trump and 18 other co-conspirators — including their colleague, Norcross Republican state Sen. Shawn Still — last summer.
Wednesday’s hearing essentially gave Merchant and Senate Republicans a platform to make several mostly unchecked statements about Willis, such as accusing her of intimidating witnesses to keep them from testifying about her relationship with Wade and lying under oath.
Merchant has argued that Willis has personally enriched herself from the case, pointing to travel Wade covered for the two of them in California’s Napa Valley and the Caribbean. The prosecutors have argued they have done nothing wrong and that they roughly split expenses, with Willis often paying Wade back in cash.
Jones, the Democrat, pushed Merchant on what in her allegations constitutes an actual conflict of interest. Jones said there’s nothing in state law or case law that proves what Willis and Wade did is a conflict of interest that harms Merchant’s client.
Jones referenced Willis and Wade’s trips, which appear to total roughly $17,000, according to numbers disclosed in court filings. Willis earns about $200,000 a year as district attorney.
“Your argument is that a person who makes $200,000 a year is actually setting up prosecutions so she can go on a trip that costs $3,500?” Jones asked. “And they have made up all these prosecutions to go on a three-day cruise for $3,300?”
Credit: Steve Schaefer/AJC
Credit: Steve Schaefer/AJC
Merchant said the $17,000 worth of trips was all she could prove was spent, but that the real issue was that Willis received gifts that cost more than $100 and that she did not properly disclose them.
“What we’ve got is we’ve got these financial disclosures where they’re not being truthful, Ms. Willis is lying under oath — which is the same thing my client is charged conspiring to do, lying under oath — about receiving a benefit over $100,” she said. “(Then) you’ve got this concerted effort ... to hide this information from the public. I think that it is very reasonable for a court to think that that is a conflict of interest.”
Merchant also mentioned several issues she raised in previous court filings that have been largely disregarded by McAfee. Among them were Wade’s qualifications to try the case and whether Willis’ office properly handled Wade’s appointment process.
The establishment of the Senate committee is the latest attempt by Republicans to investigate or discipline Willis. During the summer, GOP senators created a panel that was tasked with investigating overcrowding, a backlog of cases and dangerous conditions at the Fulton County Jail — though they said the subcommittee had nothing to do with politics or Willis.
Willis’ critics have accused the district attorney of focusing too much attention on the Trump investigation instead of moving criminal cases through initial hearings that could ease overcrowding in the jail.
Still is one of three Republicans with Senate ties who were among the electors put forward by the Georgia GOP to cast ballots for Trump in 2020, even though Democrat Joe Biden won the state.
Still and former state Senate President Pro Tem David Shafer, who was chairman of the state GOP in 2020, were indicted in their roles as electors. Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who was a senator at the time, was named an investigation “target” by Fulton prosecutors, but Willis was later barred from further investigating him due to a political conflict of interest.
Jones has also been using his political influence as president of the state Senate to allow separate legislative probes that scrutinize how Willis is handling a backlog of criminal cases and spending taxpayer dollars to oversee what he derides as a “circus” prosecution.
Cowsert has said the hearings could take months before the panel decides whether the laws need to be updated.
“Our endgame is to determine whether there’s been improper behavior, whether there’s been financial irregularities and what state laws have been broken and then determine if we need to amend the state laws ... as to what’s proper conduct from prosecuting attorneys,” he said.
Shortly after qualifying to run for a second term on Wednesday, Willis called the Senate Republicans’ work “a political quest.”
“I think that people are angry because I’m going to do the right thing and I’m going to stand up for justice no matter who is the person that may have done wrong in Fulton County,” she said. “They can continue on with their games, and I will continue to do the work of the people.”
Staff writers Tamar Hallerman and Greg Bluestein contributed to this article.
Credit: Steve Schaefer/AJC
Credit: Steve Schaefer/AJC
Credit: Steve Schaefer/AJC
Credit: Steve Schaefer/AJC
Credit: Steve Schaefer/AJC
Credit: Steve Schaefer/AJC
About the Author
