Fulton County DA Fani Willis to testify before GOP-led Senate panel, chair says

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Fulton County DA Fani Willis will testify before a Senate Committee next month. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder (file photo)

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who brought charges against President Donald Trump, will testify before a Senate committee next month after resisting requests to make an appearance, according to the committee chairman.

“She’s going to be treated fairly like any other witness here, but counsel will be present,” said Athens Republican Sen. Bill Cowsert, who chairs the Senate Special Committee on Investigations, which was formed last year to investigate Willis and met Friday.

Cowsert said his team is in talks with Willis’ attorney, former Gov. Roy Barnes, about the specifics of the hearing.

“We are currently discussing, there are certain areas he thinks ought to be out of bounds, and I’m not free to disclose that to you or tell you now, but we’re going to be asking her the same things that we’re asking all the witnesses: Is anything broken about this system? Is there anything you would recommend we do to make it clearer what your obligations were?”

Willis has resisted the committee’s attempts to have her appear before them. A judge ruled that the committee can subpoena Willis, but that fight is pending with the Georgia Supreme Court with oral arguments set for next month.

Only Cowsert, who is running for Georgia attorney general in next year’s election, and Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones, an Augusta Democrat who also serves on the committee, will pose questions to Willis, a Democrat.

Cowsert said his questions for Willis will center around potential legislative changes lawmakers might consider next session to help identify what he called “inappropriate, improper, unethical conduct” for prosecutors.

Willis was disqualified from prosecuting Trump and his 14 remaining co-defendants on charges that they conspired to illegally overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss to now-former President Joe Biden. She admitted to having a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, whom she hired as a special prosecutor. The Georgia Court of Appeals found the relationship created a “significant appearance of impropriety” and pulled her off the case, and the Georgia Supreme Court declined to hear her appeal last month.

Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled Friday that the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia has two weeks to name a new prosecutor to pick up the Fulton County election interference case or the case will be dismissed.

“She’s being accused of acting inappropriately, and she’s saying, ‘how do I know that’s inappropriate?’” Cowsert said. “Now, some of us, it’s kind of common sense on some of these things, but if we need a more precise reason so that the prosecutors can understand what’s permitted behavior and unpermitted behavior, then let’s give them that.”

The majority of the members of the committee are seeking higher office – Sens. Greg Dolezal, John Kennedy, Steve Gooch and Blake Tillery, all Republicans, are seeking to become Georgia’s next lieutenant governor.

Neither Willis’ office nor Barnes immediately responded to requests for comment Friday.

Democrats have largely characterized the committee as a political farce, calling it an excuse to go after Willis and progressive district attorneys who have policies not to prosecute crimes like nonviolent drug offenses.

Speaking to reporters at the Capitol after Friday’s meeting, Jones said he’s looking forward to Willis’ testimony.

“I think it’d be interesting to have her come over here, I think that’s a good thing,” he said. “She’s been the center of attention so much, so it’d be good for her to actually come and get her side of it, so to speak.”

Still, Jones, himself a former prosecutor and solicitor general, expressed skepticism at the committee’s task, particularly after hearing an update from the head of the state’s Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission.

Ian Heap, the commission’s director, told the committee Friday that while over 100 complaints against prosecutors have been filed since 2024, not one has met the standard to require a hearing that could result in disciplinary action.

“It actually brought the justice system into a negative light, that’s what actually happened,” Jones said. “And so persons now kind of look at the justice system with a more jaundiced eye, but what we’re finding is, with none of those cases actually going to the panel, we’re finding that they shouldn’t have that opinion of the justice system. But unfortunately, it was brought about because of laws like this, unnecessary laws like this, targeting different prosecutors, which was wrong, and now we can see in the results why it was wrong.”