Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis wants to extinguish a subpoena targeting her ahead of a Feb. 15 hearing on whether her relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade should disqualify her from the election subversion case against former President Donald Trump.
Ms. Willis said attorneys for Michael Roman, a Trump co-defendant who is leading efforts to disqualify the district attorney and kill the indictment, issued the subpoenas with an eye toward a “public narrative” rather than a legal remedy.
“These subpoenas appear transparently to be an attempt to conduct discovery in a (rather belated) effort to support reckless accusations made in prior court filings. The subpoenas should be quashed,” she wrote.
Ms. Willis began investigating Mr. Trump three years ago based on his efforts to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to dig up enough votes to overturn President Biden’s narrow electoral victory in the state in 2020. A grand jury last year indicted Mr. Trump and his associates.
Yet Mr. Roman filed a bombshell motion alleging Ms. Willis benefited from the prosecution because she hired Mr. Wade, a lawyer, to work on the case and then took trips with him in an apparent romantic relationship.
Ms. Willis acknowledged the relationship in a formal response but said that was no reason to disqualify her or Mr. Wade, saying they didn’t benefit personally from the case.
Judge Scott McAfee scheduled the hearing next week to deal with the matter.
Ms. Willis said attempts to subpoena her and staff members amount to a fishing expedition and should be tossed.
“Although litigation is certainly adversarial, there are rules in play that govern the proceedings,” she wrote. “Because defendant Roman cannot establish the necessity of any of the testimony or documents he has demanded, the subpoenas should be quashed.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.