State investigations create more danger for Trump’s prosecutor in Georgia

A new investigation set in the Georgia State Capitol gives a taste of the turbulence that Fani T. Willis, the prosecutor prosecuting Donald J. Trump, could face even if a judge lets her take the high-stakes case to keep.

During a hearing Wednesday before a special Senate committee that recently began investigating Ms. Willis, the attorney who led the disqualification testified that Ms. Willis once took a large sum of money from her political campaign for personal use. .

The senator who chaired the hearing, Bill Cowsert, a Republican, was surprised by the accusation. “I think all of us here who run campaigns know that you can’t use campaign money for personal use, right?” he asked.

Defense barrister Ashleigh Merchant told Mr Cowsert she was “not well versed in that area of ​​the law, but that is my view.” He replied: “It’s pretty black and white.”

There is no evidence to support the accusation. Ms. Willis borrowed her first campaign nearly $50,000 from a retirement account and got only a fraction of that back, according to her office, campaign finance records and her past comments.

But the incident reflected that even if Ms. Willis survives the attempt to disqualify her, she would face tough questions from Georgia Republicans, who could perpetuate questions about her character and the uncertainty surrounding the Trump case for months to come.

Seven months have passed since Ms. Willis filed the racketeering case against Trump and 18 of his allies, accusing them of conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia. Four of the defendants have already pleaded guilty, and Ms. Willis at one point told the judge, Scott McAfee of the Fulton County Superior Court, that she was aiming for the trial to begin in August.

But the case was reversed in January after Ms. Merchant revealed in a court filing that Ms. Willis had a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the lawyer she hired in November 2021 to handle the Trump case.

Ms. Merchant represents Michael Roman, a defendant and former Trump campaign official. She and other lawyers have said Ms. Willis engaged in “self-dealing” because she took a number of vacations with Mr. Wade after hiring him, while using public funds to pay him more than $650,000 so far.

The filing forced Ms. Willis to publicly acknowledge that she and Mr. Wade had pursued a romance. And the allegations were so troubling that Judge McAfee has held a series of public hearings in recent weeks to determine whether the relationship had created a disqualifying conflict of interest. The judge has said he will rule next week.

Legal experts have pointed out that Ms. Willis could have avoided this particular controversy had she not been in a romantic relationship with someone who worked for her.

Ms. Merchant testified Wednesday that if Ms. Willis had gone to the county and said, “I’m having an affair with this man, but he’s brilliant and he would be a great prosecutor in this election interference case,” then “we wouldn’t be here.” ” because the hiring, Ms. Merchant later added, “would not have been approved.”

The Senate investigation is one of many investigations surrounding Ms. Willis. 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 in the process of setting up a prosecution committee, which is also expected to review the case.

The Republican-controlled Senate set up a special committee to investigate Ms. Willis shortly after the motion to disqualify her was made. The committee has no authority to punish the public prosecutor. But having the power to issue subpoenas 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.

During the Senate hearing on Wednesday, Ms. Merchant said Ms. Willis recently testified that she used a large amount of money from her failed 2018 campaign for a local judgeship to reimburse Mr. Wade for the costs of their vacations.

Ms. Merchant said that Ms. Willis testified “that most of the money she had on hand came from her campaign,” and that it was “a loan she made to herself during the campaign.”

“She was very clear about that,” Ms Merchant added.

In fact, Ms. Willis’ testimony on February 15 was unclear. She said, “When I ran for judge, I took $50,000 of my personal money out of my pension and that money ended up being lost.”

Later in her testimony, when pressed further about how she had repaid Mr. Wade, she said that she had “taken a large amount of money with me during my first campaign,” and that she had “taken some of the money from that had kept. ” Neither the judge nor defense attorneys asked at the time what exactly she meant.

Campaign finance records from Ms. Willis’ judicial campaign show that loans totaling $49,000 were made, and the campaign repaid her about $8,500 in 2018.

After the Senate hearing, a spokesman for Ms. Willis’ office said Ms. Merchant “misrepresented the prosecutor’s testimony.” The spokesman, Jeff DiSantis, said Ms. Willis “testified that she took money from her pension to finance her failed 2018 campaign for the Supreme Court.”

“She has not testified that she took money from her campaign for herself, other than the loan repayment detailed in her campaign report,” he added.

Ms. Merchant said in an email that her testimony was “based on Ms. Willis’ statements under oath.”

The Senate committee plans to meet again in the coming weeks.