Fani Willis’ mic is cut as Georgia Senate committee grills her on Trump case

ATLANTA, GEORGIA: On Wednesday, December 16, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis appeared before a Georgia Senate Special Committee on Investigations.

The hearing at the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta became tense, with Willis disputing lawmakers’ questions and her microphone being briefly cut off multiple times.

Mic is cut as fiery exchanges escalate during testimony

The committee scrutinized her prosecution of President Donald Trump and multiple co-defendants. The investigative panel, composed of six Republicans and three Democrats, oversees prosecutorial conduct in Georgia. It will issue a final report after its review but has no authority to directly sanction Fulton County’s top prosecutor.

During her testimony, Willis was aggressively cross-examined by State Senator Greg Dolezal (R). He focused on her handling of the Trump case and other investigations of individuals accused of attempting to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. When she spoke beyond the scope of a question, committee members briefly cut her microphone, reflecting the hearing’s heated atmosphere.

Dolezal questioned Willis about the employment of Nathan Wade, the lead prosecutor on Fulton County's 2020 election case against Trump. Because of a romantic relationship between Willis and Wade, she was recused from the criminal case she filed against Trump and his associates.

Fani Willis says she has faced intimidation for five years

“You all have been trying to intimidate me for five years, which is why I have not been able to live in my house,” Willis testified, adding that her home had been vandalized with racial slurs and her office had received thousands of threats.

“Why don’t you investigate how many times my house has been swatted?” she asked the committee. “Why don’t you investigate how many times they’ve called me the N-word?”

Willis also pushed back during questioning about her racketeering investigation into Trump and his co-defendants. When her attorney offered to let her answer Dolezal’s question regarding her discussions with Wade, she quipped, “It’s a dumbass question.”

In August 2023, Trump and 18 others denied the accusations brought against them in a broad racketeering indictment, which detailed alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. The charges stemmed from Willis’ investigation, initiated after a January 2, 2021, phone call in which then-President Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” votes that would favor him.