Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis Files Motion to Quash Subpoenas in Trump Election Interference Case

Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis is pushing back against a growing effort by former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants in their Georgia election interference case to disqualify Willis from prosecuting them over an alleged conflict of interest, filing a motion seeking to rescind subpoenas against her in what she called an “effort to support reckless accusations.”

Willis filed a motion Wednesday afternoon requesting Georgia Judge Scott McAfee withdraw the subpoenas for her and her staff, arguing they “appear transparently to be an attempt to conduct discovery in a (rather belated) effort to support reckless accusations made in prior court filings.”

Willis’ filing comes as the Democratic district attorney faces growing calls for her removal over allegations she maintained an improper relationship with a lead prosecutor in the case.

As of Wednesday, Trump and seven of his co-defendants have filed motions to disqualify Willis, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark and former Georgia GOP Chairman David Shafer.

Willis—along with seven employees at the district attorney’s office—has been subpoenaed to testify at a Feb. 15 hearing on whether she should be disqualified from the case, in which Trump and 18 co-defendants were criminally charged for their alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

One of those employees facing a subpoena is Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom Willis hired to prosecute Trump’s criminal case but has since come under fire over a “personal” relationship he maintained with Willis—Wade admitted to the relationship but denied any wrongdoing.

While Willis has become the target of intensified MAGA scorn since announcing charges against Trump in August, those attacks took a new direction last month, when Trump’s co-defendants one-by-one began calling for her disqualification over an alleged conflict of interest. One of Trump’s co-defendants, Michael Roman, filed a motion last month seeking to disqualify Willis, alleging her “improper, clandestine personal relationship” with Wade posed a conflict of interest in the case and violated public money laws. Court documents revealed Wade and Willis had gone on at least two vacations together, while Wade made over $12,000 from working on the case. While Willis and Wade did not immediately respond to the accusations over their alleged relationship, the pair opened up last week, admitting in a court filing to having developed a “personal relationship” in 2022—after Wade was hired—though Wade argued he was not financially tied to Willis. Willis, in turn, will reportedly decide this week whether to step down or recuse herself from the election interference case.

The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee has separately launched an investigation into Willis over allegations her office had plans to misuse a federal grant from the Department of Justice and fire a whistleblower. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who chairs the committee, claimed Willis’ office planned to use the funding for MacBooks, travel expenses and other “swag,” and that she fired an employee who tried to stop her office from misusing the funding. Willis denied those allegations.