'I'm not on trial,' Fani Willis says in hearing

Fani Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Ga., accused lawyers representing former President Donald Trump and his allies of attempting to put her on trial and being “contrary to democracy” during a Thursday hearing on whether she should be disqualified from prosecuting the Georgia election interference case.

At issue is whether Willis' personal relationship with Nathan Wade, a lawyer she hired to help with the case as a special prosecutor, represents a conflict of interest and disqualifies both her and her office from prosecuting Trump. Defense attorneys argue that Willis profited from the relationship because she paid Wade hundreds of thousands of dollars for his work, then reaped the rewards when Wade paid for vacations for the two. Wade testified that Willis paid him back for some travel expenses. Willis and Wade testified that their relationship began in 2022 and ended months ago.

Responding to questions from attorney Ashleigh Merchant — who is representing Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign staffer and White House aide — Willis forcefully pushed back on what she called "lies" about her relationship with Wade.

“Do you think I’m on trial? These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. I’m not on trial no matter how hard you try to put me on trial,” Willis said.

Later, Willis called Merchant's interests "contrary to democracy.”

If the judge removes Willis from overseeing the prosecution of Trump and others, the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia is responsible for reassigning the case to another prosecutor. The move would likely delay the trial past Election Day.

Trump and 18 others were indicted in August on charges of racketeering for seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia, a state the Joe Biden won on his way to defeating Trump.

Tap the link in our bio for more. Cecilia Lallmann, Molly Finnegan, Kenichi Serino and Dan Cooney produced and edited this post.

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