A defiant Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is testifying Wednesday earlier than an investigative Georgia state Senate committee. The committee scrutinized her prosecution of President Donald Trump and a number of codefendants, at one level briefly reducing Willis’ microphone when she testified past the query she was requested.
“Let me tell you why this is such a damn joke,” Willis stated at a unique level whereas being questioned by Greg Dolazal, a Republican state senator, within the Georgia Capitol.
The investigative committee that met Wednesday, which is made up of six Republicans and three Democrats, is tasked with prosecutorial oversight throughout the Peach State. It will situation a remaining report after its investigation, however has no energy to immediately sanction Fulton County’s high prosecutor.
During the listening to, Dolazal questioned Willis about her hiring of Nathan Wade, the lead prosecutor on Fulton County’s large 2020 election case in opposition to Trump. Willis’ onetime romantic relationship with Wade finally led to her being removed from the felony case she introduced in opposition to Trump and his allies.
“Why don’t you investigate how many times my house has been swatted?” Willis forcefully informed the committee during questioning Wednesday. “Why don’t you investigate how many times they’ve called me the N-word?”
Former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, an lawyer for Willis, informed the committee that it was engaged in a “witch hunt.”
“You’re not a judge and you don’t have the power to make evidential rulings, and you don’t have the power,” Barnes informed Dolezal, the committee chairman who was questioning Willis about her investigation.
“I think you are confusing facts,” Willis responded to questions on her racketeering investigation of Trump and his codefendants,.
“You all have been trying to intimidate me for five years, which is why I have not been able to live in my house for five years, because the N-word has been written on my house, thousands of threats have come to my office,” Willis testified, as she defended her actions.
“I ain’t going to quit in a month because somebody threatened me. I took an oath to do the right thing. People came into my community and committed a crime and I indicted them, and rest assured, if someone else comes in my community and commits a crime, I will indict them again,” she stated.
When Barnes requested the prosecutor if she wished to reply Dolezal’s query about whether or not she and Wade mentioned the Trump case when he was employed, she quipped, “It’s a dumbass question.”
The committee was created to analyze Willis and Wade’s relationship
Wade was employed to be the particular prosecutor to supervise Willis’ in depth racketeering indictment in opposition to Trump and quite a few codefendants for his or her actions following the 2020 presidential election.
The Georgia state Senate Special Committee on Investigations was created in early 2024 to analyze Willis over the allegations that she and Wade financially benefited from their relationship. It has the ability to amend Georgia legislation or create new laws.
Wednesday was the second time the Fulton County district lawyer was compelled to testify below oath about her romantic relationship along with her particular prosecutor, which finally derailed her indictment. During a 2024 listening to at an Atlanta courthouse, Willis gave fiery testimony when protection attorneys for Trump and his codefendants compelled her and Wade to element their journey collectively.
Willis’ testimony Wednesday befell down the hallway from the place Rudy Giuliani, certainly one of Trump’s codefendants, appeared earlier than state lawmakers in December 2020 to put in an alternate slate of electors to vary the outcomes of the 2020 election. Giuliani inspired legislators to nominate a brand new slate of presidential electors, who additionally met in a room within the Georgia statehouse.
Four of the defendants in Willis’ torpedoed preliminary case, together with three attorneys immediately concerned in Trump’s bid to overturn the election leads to the Peach State, accepted plea offers, in some instances pleading responsible to felony expenses in trade for extra lenient sentencing suggestions. Other defendants vehemently denied any wrongdoing, some arguing they had been merely making an attempt to rectify what they believed had been critical irregularities that tainted the 2020 election outcomes.
Barnes accused the committee of staging political theater.
“Make no mistake — your actions here will put the District Attorney at risk. The attendant publicity will inflame those who believe there is a vast conspiracy against the President. I hope the political benefits you receive from this spectacle are worth it,” Barnes wrote in a gap assertion that he was not allowed to learn during the listening to Wednesday.
NCS’s Sabrina Castro and Jonathan Schaer contributed to this report.