ATLANTA – The Georgia Senate’s Republican majority voted Monday to reauthorize a committee formed last year to investigate Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ role in the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump.
Willis has refused to comply with subpoenas the Senate Special Committee on Investigations has issued calling for her to testify before the panel and bring documents related to the case. A Fulton Superior Court Judge upheld the subpoenas late last month, a ruling Willis has vowed to appeal.
In a separate decision last month, the state Court of Appeals disqualified Willis from the case, ruling that her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired to lead the prosecution, constituted an appearance of impropriety. But the committee still has unfinished business, Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, the panel’s chairman, said on the Senate floor Monday.
“We are focused on the potential for enactment of new laws with state implications,” he said.
Dolezal added that the committee’s findings also may have implications for the state budget.
The committee met five times last year, with much of the testimony involving Fulton County’s procurement processes when it comes to hiring outside contractors like Wade.
On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones, D-Augusta, who served on the committee last year, called it a waste of time.
“We learned nothing about anything that impacts the lives of Georgians,” he said.
Sen. Josh McLaurin, D-Sandy Springs, said the committee was a politically motivated effort by Republicans aimed at Willis’ prosecution of former President Donald Trump, indicted by a Fulton County grand jury in 2023 on charges of participating in a scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
With now-President-elect Trump set to take the oath of office next Monday, the Fulton case is essentially on hold.
“This is a fixation on the past driven primarily by the obsessions of one man who is going to be president in a week,” McLaurin said.
But Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, said the committee was formed out of a legitimate need to hold Willis accountable for her actions in the case.
“Let’s finish the work of this very important committee,” he said.
The Senate approved the resolution reauthoring the committee 33-23, voting along party lines.