Ga. Lawmakers Hear From Attorney Behind Effort to Remove Willis

The attorney who initiated the effort to remove Fani Willis from the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump walked state lawmakers through her investigation into the Fulton County district attorney's romantic relationship with a special prosecutor and why she believes it creates a conflict of interest.

Ashleigh Merchant, who represents Trump co-defendant Michael Roman, was subpoenaed to appear Wednesday in front of a specially appointed Georgia state Senate committee tasked with investigating whether Willis engaged in misconduct. Willis' relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she hired to manage the election interference case, was first exposed in a motion filed Jan. 8 by Merchant that seeks to toss out the indictment and to bar Willis and her office from continuing the prosecution.

Merchant's testimony in front of the legislative committee came on the heels of an extraordinary court hearing that spanned several days and included testimony from Willis and Wade. Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee is expected to rule by the end of next week on whether to disqualify Willis and her office from the case that accuses Trump and others of trying to overturn the former president's loss in the 2020 election in Georgia.

Answering questions under oath for three-and-a-half hours Wednesday, Merchant ended up retreading much of the ground that had been covered in court. Unencumbered by objections from prosecutors and the frustrations of questioning a reluctant witness, Merchant recounted how her investigation unfolded and the evidence she gathered.

Merchant and attorneys for Trump and the other defendants have argued that Willis paid Wade large sums for his work and then personally benefitted when he paid for vacations, saying that creates a conflict of interest. Willis and Wade acknowledged the relationship happened but said it didn't start until after Wade was hired, that they split travel costs and that it had no bearing on the criminal case.

Speaking at the start of the legislative hearing, state Sen. Bill Cowsert, a lawyer and the Republican chair of the committee, told Merchant the allegations in her motion had generated public concern about what constitutes appropriate conduct and possible financial improprieties. He said the committee was charged with finding the facts and, if necessary, amending laws or creating new ones to provide guardrails to "restore the public faith in our criminal justice system and its impartiality and its fairness."

Cowsert has said the committee, made up of six Republicans and three Democrats, is not leading a "witch hunt," but Democrats have been skeptical of this and other efforts to investigate or punish Willis since she began investigating Trump.

Visiting the state Capitol on Wednesday afternoon to qualify to run for reelection, Willis dismissed those efforts as "a political quest."

"I think that people are angry because I'm going to do the right thing and I'm going to stand up for justice, no matter who is the person that may have done wrong in Fulton County," she told reporters. "So, they can continue on with their games and I'm going to continue to do the work of the people."

Cowsert was particularly interested in the workings of a special grand jury that aided Willis' investigation, and in the rules surrounding the hiring of outside lawyers as special prosecutors in criminal cases. He suggested those are areas where legislators might consider adding statutory authority or limitations.

Cowsert seemed skeptical of the invoices Wade submitted to the district attorney's office, which have few details and charge by blocks of hours rather than the smaller increments generally favored by lawyers. He also wanted to know about the process for approving invoices for payment and asked a lot of questions about how Wade was paid much more than two other special prosecutors hired for the case.

Cowsert also wanted to hear how Merchant uncovered the relationship.

The Atlanta-area legal community is small, and a lot of people had been surprised to see Wade appointed to the election interference investigation, she said. Merchant, who lives in Cobb County where Wade lived and practiced, said Wade's former law partner, Terrence Bradley, called her because he had seen a news article on her efforts to investigate money that had been paid to Wade and his partners through contracts with Willis' office. He told her Willis had called him after that article was published.

Merchant said she then ran into Bradley at the courthouse and was sitting talking to him and other lawyers when he walked her through the timeline of the relationship, saying it began shortly after Willis and Wade met at a judicial conference in October 2019. He then continued to feed her details for the next several months and she used that information to guide her investigation and to file open records requests.