District attorney defends the qualifications of a prosecutor hired in Trump’s Georgia election case
ATLANTA– Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Sunday defended the qualifications of a special prosecutor she hired for her case against Donald Trump and others over efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia after an attorney accused Willis of professionally improper conduct.
In her first public comments since the accusation was made in a lawsuit, Willis strongly defended her leadership of the office and pushed back against critics. She received a warm welcome from the congregation of Big Bethel AME Church when she spoke at a service honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. the day before the holiday.
Willis thanked the leaders of the historically black church in Atlanta, who “didn’t care what they said about me” and told her that “the invitation was still good” to speak.
“I hope this week I don’t look like what I went through,” she said.
The charges are contained in a motion filed last week by Ashleigh Merchant, who represents Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign aide and onetime White House aide. The filing alleges that Willis was involved in an inappropriate romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the outside attorney she hired, and questions Wade’s qualifications for the job.
The motion seeks to have the charges dismissed and Willis and Wade and their offices disqualified from further prosecution of the case.
At church, Willis did not address the allegations of an inappropriate relationship. She did not speak to reporters after the service.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said during a hearing Friday that he is awaiting a response from the district attorney’s office and expects to hold a hearing on the motion in February. Other lawyers in the case, including Trump attorney Steve Sadow, have said they want to investigate the allegations before deciding whether to join the motion.
Willis said her father, who she said met and spent time with King, told her he saw the civil rights leader in dark moments, sad because people were cruel and unsupportive. Her father told her that King “was not a perfect man, but a great man, willing to answer God’s call.”
At a low point last week, she said, “she wrote a letter to Heavenly Father.” She framed much of her church talk as a conversation with God, describing herself again and again as flawed, imperfect, and hard. -led.
“You didn’t tell me as a woman of color, it wouldn’t matter what I did. My motive, my talent, my abilities and my character would be under constant attack,” she said.
She sometimes seemed to choke up and talked about the loneliness and stress of her work, saying that she “didn’t think it was normal if I didn’t get two death threats a week” and that she regularly received racist comments.
She revealed that on Christmas Eve she received a 911 call saying police had surrounded her house because a man had called 911 and said he had shot a woman there. She said she experienced “pure, unimaginable fear,” believing her eldest daughter was dead in her home until it turned out the incident was “a cruel hoax.”
Willis said she hired three special prosecutors for the election case: a white man, a white woman and a black man. They are paid the same hourly rate and no one has questioned the qualifications of the two white attorneys, she said.
Although she never mentioned Wade by name, she called him a “superstar, a great friend and a great lawyer.” Citing his past achievements and professional experience, she said, “I’m just asking, God, is it true that some will never see a black man as qualified, regardless of his achievements?”
Merchant wrote in her motion that she can find no evidence that Wade, whose law firm promotes its experience in civil litigation on its website, including car accident and family law cases, has ever prosecuted a felony case. She questioned his qualifications to handle this case.
Merchant’s filing offered no evidence of the alleged relationship or travel she said Willis and Wade had taken together.
Merchant also claims that Willis did not receive the necessary approval from district leaders to hire Wade and that no special oath was administered to him.
Pete Skandalakis, a former prosecutor and executive director of the Council of Prosecutors, said prosecutors do not have to seek approval before hiring a special prosecutor. McAfee said earlier, when another defendant raised the issue, that it did not appear that Wade would have to take the oath.