Fani Willis counterattacks as Republican Georgia senators question her Trump prosecution

ATLANTA (AP) — The showdown between Fani Willis and a Republican-led Georgia state Senate committee over her conduct while prosecuting Donald Trump had loomed for months, and when it finally arrived Wednesday, Fulton County’s Democratic district attorney was ready to fight.

“You all want to intimidate people from doing the right thing, and you think that you’re going to intimidate me," Willis told the committee. "You all have been trying to intimidate me for five years.”

When Willis announced the indictment against Trump and 18 others in August 2023, she used the state’s anti-racketeering law to allege a conspiracy to try to illegally overturn Trump’s narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

Republican Sen. Greg Dolezal spent much of the three-plus hours trying to get Willis to talk about details of the investigation and how her office works, but Willis frequently said she didn’t remember. At other times, she or her lawyer objected to the question and declined to answer, with Willis repeatedly calling the proceedings politically motivated “foolishness.” And more often than not, Willis used a question to launch a counterattack, proclaiming the purity of her motives and attacking those doing the investigating. A few times, senators shut off her microphone, only to have Willis keep talking.

“I think that she probably spent 80% of her time not answering the questions," Dolezal told reporters afterward.

The Republican-dominated state Senate in January 2024 created the Special Committee on Investigations to examine allegations of misconduct against Willis concerning her case seeking criminal convictions for efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia. The committee is supposed to be examining whether changes to state law are needed to bar future misconduct and doesn’t have the power to sanction or prosecute Willis. But even before Trump embarked on a retribution campaign against his enemies, Democrats regarded the panel as a weapon for Republican to harass a Trump foe.

Thus far, the committee has turned up few new facts regarding Willis’ activities. Trump has called Willis a “criminal” who should be “prosecuted” and “put in jail.”

The committee has focused on Willis’ hiring of special prosecutor Nathan Wade to lead the election interference case. The resolution creating the committee said a romantic relationship between the two amounted to a “clear conflict of interest and a fraud upon the taxpayers.” But the case is now defunct after Willis was removed and another prosecutor dismissed it.

Willis told Dolezal she hired Wade “because we were drowning” in other cases. “Every lawyer I had with that level of experience had a huge project,” Willis said.

“I made a decision, the people of Fulton County elected me to make that decision, and I did,” Willis said.

As Dolezal questioned how much Wade was paid, Willis listed out payments for lawyers from the Georgia attorney general, including prominent Republican lawyer Josh Belinfante, who advises the committee and was present.

Dolezal displayed documents showing that Wade and others traveled to Washington, in an effort to suggest that Willis was working with the House January 6 committee or the Biden White House to prosecute Trump.

Willis said Wade probably traveled to Washington to “get information on some of the criminals I ended up indicting.”

Willis said meetings with Biden White House officials were part of a procedure to request documents or testimony from the federal government. She defiantly proclaimed she had made the prosecution decisions herself.

“You’re trying to imply some wrongdoing where none exists,” said Roy Barnes, the former Democratic Georgia governor representing Willis.

After the meeting, Dolezal said Willis' office communicated both in person and via telephone with the Biden administration before presenting charges against Trump.

“We know they had an eight-hour phone call with the White House on the very same day that Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith a special prosecutor," he said. "We don’t know why. We don’t know what was discussed because suddenly people can’t remember anything.”

Democrats have decried the panel as a partisan time-waster driven by political ambition. Four Republicans on the committee are running for statewide office in 2026. Chairman Bill Cowsert of Athens is running for attorney general, though he was unable to attend the hearing for medical reasons. Sens. Dolezal of Cumming, Blake Tillery of Vidalia and Steve Gooch of Dahlonega are each seeking the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. Another Republican who had been on the committee, John Kennedy of Macon, resigned from the Senate last week to pursue his own bid for lieutenant governor.

Willis repeatedly asserted that the committee was attacking her for political gain: “This is about folks sitting here trying to get elected.”

But Willis herself sent out fundraising emails before and during the hearing. In a Wednesday morning email, Willis’ reelection campaign accused the committee of “trying to dig up dirt, slow us down, and distract Fani Willis from her job.” The email asked people to pack the hearing room or send her a campaign donation, and many prominent Democrats were in the audience Wednesday.

Barnes counseled Willis against answering some questions and also engaged in some heated exchanges with Dolezal, at one point saying, “This is a witch hunt. This has always been a witch hunt.”

Willis' prosecution of Trump began to fall apart in January 2024, when a defense attorney in the case alleged that Willis was involved in an improper romantic relationship with Wade.

In an extraordinary hearing, both Willis and Wade testified about the intimate details of their relationship. They both vehemently denied allegations that it constituted a conflict of interest.

The trial judge chided Willis for a “tremendous lapse in judgment,” ultimately ruling that Willis could remain on the case if Wade resigned, which he did hours later.

But after defense attorneys appealed, the Georgia Court of Appeals cited an “appearance of impropriety” and removed Willis from the case. The state Supreme Court in September declined to hear Willis' appeal.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is seen at the Georgia State Capitol during questioning from a Georgia State Senate panel about her prosecution of President Donald Trump on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is seen at the Georgia State Capitol during questioning from a Georgia State Senate panel about her prosecution of President Donald Trump on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is seen at the Georgia State Capitol during questioning from a Georgia State Senate panel about her prosecution of President Donald Trump on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is seen at the Georgia State Capitol during questioning from a Georgia State Senate panel about her prosecution of President Donald Trump on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is seen at the Georgia State Capitol during questioning from a Georgia State Senate panel about her prosecution of President Donald Trump on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is seen at the Georgia State Capitol during questioning from a Georgia State Senate panel about her prosecution of President Donald Trump on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is seen at the Georgia State Capitol during questioning from a Georgia State Senate panel about her prosecution of President Donald Trump on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

The Senate moved quickly Wednesday afternoon to close a loophole that could allow military aircraft to fly without broadcasting their locations just like an Army helicopter was doing last January before it collided with an airliner over Washington, D.C., killing 67 people.

Just hours after passing a massive defense bill that included the worrisome provisions about military flights, the Senate approved a bipartisan bill that will require all aircraft use ADS-B technology — or Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast technology — to broadcast their locations.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said that “tragedy could have been avoided” if the Army Black Hawk had been using its ADS-B system to broadcast its location before the crash, and this bill should save lives.

It is not clear exactly when the ROTOR act that Cruz and Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell and the rest of the Commerce Committee supports will be taken up by the House and whether changes will be made. But Cruz said that the White House supports the version that passed the Senate Wednesday and promised to help get it approved. Cruz said he is optimistic the bill could head to the president's desk as soon as next month.

Republican leaders decided not to delay the defense bill by amending it to address the flight safety concerns because doing that would have sent the bill back to the House for another vote.

The final report on the crash won't be completed until sometime next year. But Cruz said it makes sense to take this step now to force the military to operate under the same rules as airliners do around Washington, D.C., after the National Transportation Safety Board found 85 near misses in the three years before the crash.

The NTSB has been recommending requiring these locator systems for decades, but it has never been enacted partly because of concerns about the potential cost burden on the average Cessna owner and privacy concerns because the system would allow their planes to be tracked. Airline jets and newer general aviation planes are already equipped with a version of an ADS-B. The Black Hawk helicopter involved in the deadly collision with a plane trying to land at Reagan National Airport also had such a system, but it was flying with it turned off because the military was concerned about observers being able to pinpoint its location during a training mission.

Parents Tim and Sheri Lilley whose son Sam was the first officer on the American Airlines jet that crashed after striking the helicopter said “today's action acknowledges the magnitude of that loss and affirms that meaningful change can come from it.”

In March, the Federal Aviation Administration required all military helicopters to turn on their locator systems at all times when flying through the crowded airspace around the nation's capital. The agency also took action to ensure that helicopters and planes would no longer share the same airspace by pausing takeoffs and landings anytime a helicopter is passing the airport and closing some routes.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford promised Tuesday to maintain those safety measures to ensure flying around Washington doesn't get riskier even if the military bill becomes law. Bedford testified at a Senate committee Wednesday afternoon.

The bill also requires a review of safety at airports across the country to ensure they don't face the same hazards that contributed to the crash at Reagan Airport. And the military and FAA will have to share safety data more freely.

Ted Cruz R-Texas, left, speaks during a signing ceremony regarding AI initiatives with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)