Her case against Trump collapsed, but GOP still targeting Fani Willis
Fulton County’s election interference case against President Donald Trump is over. The political and legal fallout for District Attorney Fani Willis is not.
Georgia Republicans and Trump allies are escalating efforts to punish Willis, fueled by lingering anger over her failed prosecution of the president.
The Georgia House on Friday gave final passage to a Senate measure expanding the state’s power to discipline prosecutors accused of misconduct fueled by the Willis case. The legislation passed with overwhelming support in a 156-7 vote.
Lawmakers also approved a separate measure Friday to make district attorney elections nonpartisan in Fulton and four other heavily Democratic metro Atlanta counties — Clayton, DeKalb, Cobb and Gwinnett — a shift that could make it harder for Democratic prosecutors to win.
Meanwhile, the Senate is pressing ahead with a special committee investigating Willis’ handling of the case. And in Washington, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche signaled that federal authorities could also take action.
Pressed at the Conservative Political Action Conference, better known as CPAC, on whether figures like Willis and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will face “justice,” Blanche didn’t hedge.
“Yes,” Blanche said. “When you talk about justice, we are working hard every day. And I don’t just say ‘working hard’ as a cliché. I mean the attorney general and myself, every day, seven days a week, are focused on bringing justice — and it will come.”
Willis and her attorney, former Gov. Roy Barnes, declined to comment on the efforts. But she has called the GOP effort to scrutinize her handling of the case a politically motivated “clown show” and mocked the legislation.
“If you think you are going to impact me by threats, by legislation or anything else,” she said at the Capitol earlier this month, “you are not.”
‘Witch hunt’
Once seen as among the most promising criminal prosecutions of Trump, Willis’ case collapsed amid scrutiny of her romantic and financial ties to the special prosecutor she hired to help lead it.
The measure headed to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk expands the grounds for disciplining or removing local prosecutors through a commission Republicans created to rein in what they call “rogue” district attorneys.
Under the bill, the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission could sanction prosecutors for violating state bar rules, failing to notify crime victims, not complying with public records laws or showing “undue bias or prejudice” against a defendant.
Republican state Rep. Tyler Paul Smith, who sponsored the bill, said that it builds off previous prosecutor oversight measures that first passed in 2023 and were revamped a year later after the Georgia Supreme Court raised concerns about the process.
Some Republicans insist the recent changes aren’t aimed at Willis, who brought election interference charges against Trump and more than a dozen of his allies. But the new powers could clearly be used against her.
That’s a prospect that Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, the Trump-backed Republican candidate for governor, didn’t shy from. He’s assigned separate probes to scrutinize how Willis is handling a backlog of criminal cases and spending taxpayer dollars.
And he said in a statement that the legislation adopted Friday would empower the commission to “hold District Attorneys like Fani Willis accountable.”
“Our efforts send a clear message: in Georgia, no one is above the law,” Jones said after the Senate passed its version weeks ago. “We are restoring the boundary between personal politics and public duty.”
For Jones, there’s personal animus, too. Willis might have charged Jones in her election interference case, but she was disqualified because she hosted a fundraiser for Jones’ rival in the 2022 race. State prosecutors later declined to pursue charges against him.
Willis, for her part, has blasted the Senate panel as a “witch hunt” orchestrated by ambitious Republicans seeking to win statewide primaries.
At a Capitol event earlier this month, she scolded lawmakers for taking aim at her.
“They’re mad I have the audacity to believe and practice the principle that no one is above or below the law.”
About the Authors
Greg Bluestein is the Atlanta Journal Constitution's chief political reporter. He is also an author, TV analyst and co-host of the Politically Georgia podcast.
Riley Bunch is a reporter on the local government team at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution covering Atlanta City Hall. She covers the mayor and Atlanta City Council while also keeping an eye on the city’s diverse neighborhoods.
