A state-level investigation into the hiring practices of Fani Willis, the District Attorney of Fulton County, is intensifying, indicating that officials might have found enough incriminating evidence to potentially remove her from the office, a report said on Friday.
A Georgia state Senate committee held a hearing on Friday to discuss her hiring of Wade, a former special prosecutor in Donald Trump’s Georgia election interference case, according to Atlanta News First. The outlet reported that the committee will discuss whether Willis and Wade’s relationship timeline aligns with the use of campaign funds. It added that the committee will question Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts and Chief Financial Officer Sharon Whitmore about whether they signed off on Willis’ hiring of Wade.
Donald Trump and 18 others are being prosecuted by Willis for attempting to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia. Trump lost the state by a margin of about 12,000 votes. Recently, however, the attention has shifted from Trump to Willis. She has been involved in a scandal related to a romantic relationship she had with Wade, a special prosecutor whom she hired in the case.
An argument was made that the relationship between the two individuals was inappropriate and, therefore, disqualified Willis from continuing to lead the case. However, Judge Scott McAfee permitted Willis to remain on the case, but it was on the condition that Wade was removed and resigned. McAfee then ruled that his decision to keep Willis on the case could be appealed.
Earlier this year, Republicans in the Georgia state Senate formed a special committee to “thoroughly investigate the allegations of misconduct” against Willis and her “potential conflicts of interest and misuse of public funds” while threatening to “enact new or amend existing laws” targeting the DA.
Bill Cowsert, a Republican member of the state Senate and the committee chairman, told Atlanta News First: “You lose the confidence of the public in the fairness of our criminal justice system if they think prosecutors are engaging in prosecution so their lovers can get rich. Our job’s not to go after any person but it is to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”
For her part, Willis remained defiant as the Senate probe was set to open, and fell back on a familiar refrain: The process is racist. “Isn’t it interesting when we got a bunch of African-American DAs, now we need daddy to tell us what to do,” Willis said at a campaign event at K&K Soul Food on Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway. “So y’all can go put that in your sound byte for today. But today, I am here so I can reach my community, and this is really messing up my business.”
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