Fani Willis Facing More Legal Hurdles, State Senator Warns

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis faces more legal hurdles given that she did not appear at a Friday hearing, one Republican Georgia state senator warned.
A Georgia State Senate committee held a hearing on Friday, in which committee members subpoenaed Willis for five years’ worth of texts and emails between Willis and attorney Nathan Wade, who Willis tasked to prosecute former President Donald Trump with allegedly seeking to interfere with the election results in Georgia, a swing state that narrowly backed President Joe Biden in 2020.
Willis’ romantic relationship with Wade has since come under scrutiny. Trial judge Scott McAfee rebuked Willis in March for the relationship, in which either she or Wade was ordered to leave the Trump case. Wade resigned from the case hours later, Newsweek previously reported.
In the months since, the Georgia senate set up the special committee to “thoroughly investigate the allegations of misconduct by the district attorney for Fulton County, Fani Willis,” related to alleged “potential conflicts of interest and misuse of public funds” related to the relationship.
Willis’ lawyers expressed plans to deny the subpoena in a court filing earlier this week.
“Here’s the moment #FaniWills defied her lawful subpoena today,” legal analyst Phil Holloway posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday.
In the video, the committee asks the doorman to check the hall to ensure Willis wasn’t going to appear before they adjourned the meeting.
Willis’ failure to appear at the hearing could saddle her with more legal challenges, as Senator Bill Cowsert previously said the committee will issue a judicial order requiring Willis’ attendance, Fox News Digital reported.
“We do have the authority to investigate and to issue subpoenas to compel testimony and the production of documents, and if tested in court, that will be validated,” Cowsert said. “She’ll be required to attend, and she’ll be required to produce certain requested documents. It may require a court order for her to obey them, but that’s where we’re headed.”
Newsweek reached out to Willis’ office by email and her legal team by phone for comment.
In a court filing earlier this week, Willis’ legal team criticized the subpoena for its “broad demands.”
“The subpoenas’ broad demands to produce documents are profoundly harmful to the Prosecution. For example, the subpoenas seek every single email between Petitioner [Willis] and Former Special Counsel Wade for the last five years,” the filing said. “By its own terms, this request seeks privileged documents concerning the Prosecution.”
“The subpoenas also seek every text message exchanged between Petitioner and Former Special Counsel Wade for the last five years, regardless of their relevance to any legislative purpose. Even if Petitioner were to direct her office to provide only a privilege log for such documents, the financial and temporal burdens to comply with the subpoenas would be immense,” the filing added.
Willis’ efforts to block the subpoena first went to McAfee, who declined to rule on the matter, citing a conflict of interest since he was the judge in the Trump case. Willis’ attempts to block the subpoenas will now be “randomly” assigned to another judge, according to McAfee’s order.
Update 09/13/24, 3:48 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.