Lawyer behind Fani Willis’ disqualification expects Trump DOJ to investigate

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is likely to face continued consequences over her failed prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump, the attorney behind the original motion to disqualify her told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“I would be shocked if she wasn’t investigated by the new Justice Department,” Ashleigh Merchant, who represented Trump co-defendant Mike Roman in Willis’ racketeering case, told the DCNF.

Merchant filed the motion in January, alleging Willis financially benefited from improperly appointing Nathan Wade, with whom she was romantically involved, as special prosecutor, pointing to vacations Wade financed using money earned from his position. In March, Judge Scott McAfee found the relationship created a “significant appearance of impropriety,” though he allowed Willis to remain on the case if Wade stepped aside.

The Georgia Court of Appeals on Thursday ruled that Willis must be disqualified from prosecuting her case against Trump.

“It’s kind of like Christmas came early,” Merchant told the DCNF.

“We had to fight for a hearing. We had to fight for subpoenas. We had to fight for evidence. We had to fight to call witnesses,” Merchant said.

“I mean, they fought every single step we took.”

Days after Merchant filed the motion to disqualify, Willis stood up in front of a church and falsely declared she paid all special prosecutors the same hourly rate, suggesting the attacks were based on race. Contracts obtained by the DCNF revealed she initially paid Wade a higher rate than the other attorneys, including Georgia’s top racketeering expert.

Though Wade paid for plane tickets and other expenses related to vacations the pair took together, Willis failed to disclose any gifts from him on her 2022 financial disclosure, the DCNF reported. The pair claimed they split expenses roughly equally and that Willis paid him back in cash.

Willis’ truthfulness came under question when she took the stand during an evidentiary hearing in February, with McAfee writing there were “reasonable questions” about whether she and Wade were honest about the timing of their relationship.

Willis has continued to create “more liability” by acting like she is above the law, Merchant said.

In September, Willis defied a subpoena from a state senate investigative committee. She’s refused to comply with requests for documents from the House Judiciary Committee.

Despite a court order in an open records lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch, she still has failed to turn over documents related to communications with Special Counsel Jack Smith and the House Jan. 6 committee.

“She’s trying to create this idea that she’s this constitutional officer and doesn’t have to play by any of the legal rules,” Merchant said.

“And that’s not how it works.”

This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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