Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis received an award from Democrats on Friday night as she prosecutes the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump.
Trump, the presumed GOP presidential nominee, and 18 co-defendants were indicted in August 2023 for allegedly conspiring to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory in Georgia. The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has claimed the case is politically motivated.
On Friday night, Willis was honored with the Woman of Influence award at the Cobb County Democratic Committee annual fundraising gala. The gala serves as the largest fundraiser for local candidates running for office, the committee’s acting chair, Essence Johnson, said, according to local Fox affiliate WAGA-TV.
Newsweek reached out to Willis’ office and Trump’s spokesperson via email for comment.
Megan Varner for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Willis is up for reelection this November against Democrat Christian Wise Smith, who ran against her in 2020 and Republican Courtney Kramer, who, according to her LinkedIn profile, previously worked as a litigation consultant for Trump’s legal team.
Kramer denounced Willis’ conduct as a “disgrace to the legal community” last month after it was revealed that the district attorney had a personal relationship with then-special prosecutor Nathan Wade who she hired to assist her on Trump’s election interference case.
Earlier this year, Willis was thrown into the national spotlight when one of Trump’s co-defendants, Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign staffer, claimed that Willis and Wade had a relationship which created a conflict of interest that called for their disqualification from the case and the charges against him to be dismissed. Several other defendants later joined and supplemented Roman’s motion including Trump.
Willis and Wade did admit to the relationship, but maintained that it started in the spring of 2022 after she hired Wade and ended in the summer of 2023. They also said that neither one of them benefited financially from the relationship.
Judge Scott McAfee, who is presiding over the election interference case, ruled last month that the evidence presented by the defense was “legally insufficient” to conclude that there was a conflict of interest, however, “the appearance of impropriety remains.”
He said Willis and her office would either need to step aside and let another district attorney take over the case, or Wade will have to withdraw himself from the case. Wade resigned hours after McAfee filed his decision.
Before McAfee released his decision, Kramer, who previously interned at the Office of White House Counsel during the Trump administration, told right-wing platform Real America’s Voice, “As a lawyer myself, it’s disgusting to see her not follow her rules of professional conduct or take her oath of office seriously.”
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.