Georgia Senate committee briefly cuts Fani Willis’ mic during combative testimony
By Jason Morris, CNN
(CNN) — A defiant Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis testified Wednesday before an investigative Georgia state Senate committee. The committee scrutinized her prosecution of President Donald Trump and multiple codefendants, at one point briefly cutting Willis’ microphone when she testified beyond the question she was asked.
“Let me tell you why this is such a damn joke,” Willis said at a different point while being questioned by Greg Dolazal, a Republican state senator, in the Georgia Capitol.
The investigative committee that met Wednesday, which is made up of six Republicans and three Democrats, is tasked with prosecutorial oversight across the Peach State. It will issue a final report after its investigation, but has no power to directly sanction Fulton County’s top prosecutor.
During the hearing, Dolazal questioned Willis about her hiring of Nathan Wade, the lead prosecutor on Fulton County’s massive 2020 election case against Trump. Willis’ onetime romantic relationship with Wade ultimately led to her being removed from the criminal case she brought against Trump and his allies.
“Why don’t you investigate how many times my house has been swatted?” Willis forcefully told the committee during questioning Wednesday. “Why don’t you investigate how many times they’ve called me the N-word?”
Former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, an attorney for Willis, told the committee that it was engaged in a “witch hunt.”
“You’re not a judge and you don’t have the power to make evidential rulings, and you don’t have the power,” Barnes told Dolezal, the committee chairman who was questioning Willis about her investigation.
“I think you are confusing facts,” Willis responded to questions about her racketeering investigation of Trump and his codefendants,.
“You all have been trying to intimidate me for five years, which is why I have not been able to live in my house for five years, because the N-word has been written on my house, thousands of threats have come to my office,” Willis testified, as she defended her actions.
“I ain’t going to quit in a month because somebody threatened me. I took an oath to do the right thing. People came into my community and committed a crime and I indicted them, and rest assured, if someone else comes in my community and commits a crime, I will indict them again,” she said.
When Barnes asked the prosecutor if she wanted to answer Dolezal’s question about whether she and Wade discussed the Trump case when he was hired, she quipped, “It’s a dumbass question.”
The committee was created to investigate Willis and Wade’s relationship
Wade was hired to be the special prosecutor to oversee Willis’ extensive racketeering indictment against Trump and numerous codefendants for their actions following the 2020 presidential election.
The Georgia state Senate Special Committee on Investigations was created in early 2024 to investigate Willis over the allegations that she and Wade financially benefited from their relationship. It has the power to amend Georgia law or create new legislation.
Wednesday was the second time the Fulton County district attorney was forced to testify under oath about her romantic relationship with her special prosecutor, which ultimately derailed her indictment. During a 2024 hearing at an Atlanta courthouse, Willis gave fiery testimony when defense attorneys for Trump and his codefendants forced her and Wade to detail their travel together.
Willis’ testimony Wednesday took place down the hallway from where Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s codefendants, appeared before state lawmakers in December 2020 to install an alternate slate of electors to change the results of the 2020 election. Giuliani encouraged legislators to appoint a new slate of presidential electors, who also met in a room in the Georgia statehouse.
Four of the defendants in Willis’ torpedoed initial case, including three attorneys directly involved in Trump’s bid to overturn the election results in the Peach State, accepted plea deals, in some cases pleading guilty to felony charges in exchange for more lenient sentencing recommendations. Other defendants vehemently denied any wrongdoing, some arguing they were simply trying to rectify what they believed were serious irregularities that tainted the 2020 election results.
Barnes accused the committee of staging political theater.
“Make no mistake — your actions here will put the District Attorney at risk. The attendant publicity will inflame those who believe there is a vast conspiracy against the President. I hope the political benefits you receive from this spectacle are worth it,” Barnes wrote in an opening statement that he was not allowed to read during the hearing Wednesday.
CNN’s Sabrina Castro and Jonathan Schaer contributed to this report.
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