Fani Willis, testifying before Georgia Senate panel, defends 2020 election probe
Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis defended her criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in front of Georgia lawmakers Wednesday.
Willis, appearing before a GOP-led state Senate special committee, defended her decision to bring charges against Donald Trump and 18 alleged co-conspirators following Trump's Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which he asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" the votes needed to win the state.
Four of Trump's co-defendants subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants, but Willis was subsequently disqualified from the case following accusations of impropriety regarding her relationship with a fellow prosecutor, and the case was ultimately dropped.
"You all want to intimidate people from doing the right thing, and you think that you're going to intimidate me," Willis testified Wednesday, citing the "thousands of threats" that were sent to her home and office.
"But I took an oath to do the right thing. People came into my community and committed a crime and I indicted them. Rest assured, if someone else comes into my community and commits a crime, I will indict them again," she said.
Republican state senators peppered Willis with questions about her charging and staffing decisions, specifically as they related to Nathan Wade, the prosecutor with whom she had a romantic relationship. Asked how much money her investigation cost, Willis said, "Whatever it cost, they tried to steal the rights of thousands of Georgians. It couldn't have been enough."
Willis dismissed other inquiries in more colorful terms, calling one an "ignorant question" and another a "dumb-ass question." At one point, her attorney borrowed one of Trump's own refrains, maligning the committee's work as a "witch hunt."
Trump, who pleaded not guilty to all charges before the Georgia case was tossed, has denied all wrongdoing.
