After a defense counsel accused Willis of professional wrongdoing, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis defended the qualifications of a special prosecutor she recruited for her case against Donald Trump and others over plans to invalidate Georgia’s 2020 election.
Willis defended her leadership of the office and pushed back against critics in her first public statements since the claim was made in a court filing. She was enthusiastically welcomed by the congregation of Big Bethel AME Church when she spoke at a service a day before the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
Willis thanked Atlanta leaders who “didn’t care what they said about me” and informed her “the invite was still good” to speak.
“I hope for y’all this week I don’t look like what I’ve been through,” she went on to say.
Ashleigh Merchant, who represents Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign staffer and onetime White House official, made the charges in a motion filed last week. The complaint claims that Willis had an inappropriate intimate involvement with Nathan Wade, the outside counsel she hired, and calls Wade’s abilities into question.
The move requests that the indictment be dropped and that Willis and Wade, as well as their offices, be barred from further prosecuting the matter.
Willis did not address the claims of an inappropriate relationship at the church. She declined to talk with reporters following the funeral.
During a hearing Friday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee stated that he is expecting a response from the district attorney’s office and plans to hold a hearing on the request in February. Other defense attorneys in the case, including Trump attorney Steve Sadow, have stated that they want to investigate the charges before deciding whether to join the motion.
Willis claimed that her father, who met and spent time with King, informed her that he saw the civil rights leader at low points, upset by people’s cruelty and unsupport. King, according to her father, “was not a perfect man, but he was a great man, willing to answer God’s call.”
She stated she “penned a letter to my heavenly Father” during a difficult period in the previous week. She presented much of her church speech as a dialog with God, often characterizing herself as weak, defective, and stubborn.
“You didn’t tell me that because I’m a woman of color, it wouldn’t matter what I did.” “My motive, talent, ability, and character would be constantly questioned,” she explained.
She looked to choke up briefly at times and talked about the loneliness and stress of her job, saying it’s “not normal if I don’t have two death threats a week” and that she’s frequently called racial slurs.
She said that on Christmas Eve, she received an emergency call informing her that police had surrounded her home after a man called 911 claiming he had shot a woman there. She described her feelings as “pure, unimaginable fear,” assuming her older daughter was murdered in her own home until the incident was proved to be “a cruel hoax.”
Willis stated that three special prosecutors were hired for the election case: a white man, a white woman, and a Black guy. They are paid the same hourly rate, and no one has questioned the two white lawyers’ competence, she claims.
While never naming Wade, she referred to him as a “superstar, a great friend, and a great lawyer.” “I’m just asking, God, is it that some will never see a Black man as qualified, no matter his achievements?” she added, citing his accomplishments and previous professional experience.
Merchant stated in her motion that she has found no evidence that Wade has ever prosecuted a felony case, despite the fact that his law company website promotes his experience in civil litigation, including automobile accident and family law matters. She questioned his suitability to try this case.
Merchant’s filing included no evidence of the alleged relationship or the travels she claimed Willis and Wade had done together.
Merchant further claims that Willis did not obtain the appropriate consent from county officials to hire Wade and that no special prosecutor’s oath was filed for him.
According to Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council and a former district attorney, district attorneys are not required to obtain authorization before hiring a special prosecutor. When another defendant raised the matter, McAfee earlier stated that it did not appear Wade was obliged to file the oath.