Disqualification isn’t the only threat to Fani Willis’ prosecution

A special committee of the Georgia State Senate held a hearing last week on allegations of misconduct by Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis, clarifying that the effort to disqualify her from prosecuting Donald J. Trump is not the only one. threat to her case against the former president.

Ms. Willis is facing a series of investigations that could perpetuate questions about her character and the uncertainty surrounding the Trump case for months to come.

The prosecution of Mr. Trump and his allies for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia was quashed in January after a lawyer for one of Mr. Trump’s co-defendants revealed in a lawsuit that Ms. Willis had a romantic relationship had with Nathan J. Wade, the lawyer she hired to handle the Trump case.

Defense lawyers accused Ms. Willis of “self-dealing” for taking a series of vacations with Mr. Wade after hiring him, while using public funds to pay him more than $650,000 so far.

Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, a Trump ally and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has used the conflict of interest allegations to search for more records as part of the commission’s ongoing investigation into the district attorney’s office.

Georgia Republicans are setting up a prosecution committee that will likely also review the case. The commission is expected to have the power to fire prosecutors.

Georgia’s Republican-controlled Senate created a special committee to investigate Ms. Willis shortly after lawyers filed a motion to disqualify her. The committee has no authority to punish the public prosecutor. But because she can issue subpoenas, this could embarrass her.

That could help Trump in his attempt to win Georgia in the presidential elections. Negative headlines about Ms. Willis generated by the committee’s work could also sway potential jurors if the Trump case ultimately goes to trial.