Fulton County DA Fani Willis’ office must fork over $54,000 in legal fees over an open-records request by a defense attorney on the criminal case against the president.
THE NEW YORK POST | Published March 18, 2025
Embattled District Attorney Fani Willis’ office must fork over $54,000 in legal fees after a Georgia judge found it was “openly hostile” to a lawyer in the Trump election interference case.
Criminal defense lawyer Ashleigh Merchant — who represents Trump co-defendant Mike Roman and blew the whistle on Willis’ affair with her lead prosecutor in the case — won the judgment against Willis’ office in Fulton County.
Merchant claimed in her lawsuit that the office stonewalled her requests for records the public has the right to access.
Fulton County Justice Rachel Krause noted in her Friday decision that people in Willis’ office who handled Merchant’s records requests “were openly hostile” to the defense lawyer and testified that they handled her request differently than normal, including by not calling her to clarify her request, as was customary.
The judge said this was a violation of the state’s Open Records Act, Fox 5 first reported.
The office’s failure to give Merchant the documents at the time she requested them was “intentional, not done in good faith, and [was] substantially groundless and vexatious,” the judge wrote.
Merchant sought a list of lawyers who Willis hired and when, any confidentiality agreements her employees had to sign and any promotional or rebranding materials from her office.
Krause said all of these documents must be turned over to Merchant within a month from the ruling, along with the legal fees it cost Merchant to fight for the information.
“Proud that we have judges willing to hold people in power accountable when they ignore the law!!!!” Merchant posted on X about the decision Friday.
Ashleigh Merchant, who represents Trump co-defendant Mike Roman in the election-interference case, won the $54,000 judgment.Reuters
Merchant came into the national spotlight last year when she filed papers on Roman’s behalf to get Willis, 53, booted from the criminal case against President Trump on alleged misconduct grounds after it was discovered the DA had a romantic relationship with case prosecutor Nathan Wade
Willis appointed Wade to lead the prosecution against Trump and a slew of co-defendants for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election result in the Peach State.
The affair scandal derailed the criminal case when Willis and Wade were forced to testify in open court about their romance — which they claimed began after Wade started working the case and ended months before it became public.
The ruling in Merchant’s records case is not the first against Willis’ office, which in January was ordered to pay nearly $22,000 in legal fees to conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch after she “flatly ignored” an open records request by the organization.
WIllis’ office didn’t return a Post request for comment Monday.
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SOURCE: www.nypost.com
RELATED: Fani Willis Ordered to Burn More Cash for ‘Intentionally’ Violating Open Record Laws in Pursuit of Trump
Alyssa Pointer/Pool Photo via AP
REDSTATE | Published March 18, 2025
Poor Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
The DA, who has been consumed by her irrational hatred of President Donald Trump for God knows how long, has been ordered to open her checkbook for intentionally violating Georgia’s open records laws in the TDS-riddled prosecution of Trump.
OK, I’m just kidding about the “poor” part.
Call it poetic justice or whatever you choose, but Willis’s irrational pursuit of Trump, including the irrational claims and charges she made, was and remains inexcusable.
So kudos to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rachel Krause, who on Friday ordered Willis to pay $54,264 in attorneys’ fees and litigation costs after “intentionally” failing to provide records requested by Ashleigh Merchant, the attorney who filed the motion to disqualify Willis from prosecuting Trump on charges of allegedly interfering with the 2020 presidential election.
Merchant said she was “completely stonewalled” by Willis’s office, beginning around September 2023, when she began looking into the DA’s romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the former lead prosecutor on the election interference case, which became the subject of a days-long evidentiary hearing that drew international media attention.
As reported by CBS affiliate WSB-TV in Atlanta, Judge Krause gave Willis 30 days to pay the judgment.
Here’s more:
Citing state statute … Krause ruled that “an agency or custodian of public records has three business days, upon receipt of an ORA request, to determine whether and how to produce or permit copying and inspection of the requested records.”
Krause said in the Final Judgment Order filed Friday that the DA’s office and Willis had failed to comply with the records laws, saying that the “failure to comply was not substantially justified,” and no records were made available.
In a related development, lawyers for Willis said she will release documents related to her investigation of Trump to a Georgia Senate committee.
As a refresher, Willis, in 2021, launched an investigation into allegations that Trump and his allies attempted to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia after Joe Biden had been declared the winner in the state. Subsequently, a grand jury absurdly indicted Trump and 18 others in August 2023 on multiple charges, including racketeering and conspiracy.
Now president again, Trump is immune from prosecution for the next four years, and Willis has been rebuked by the courts as she continues to fight to keep the case alive. Let’s hope Willis is forced to continue burning through her money. We can call it “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”
Meanwhile, let’s also hope President Trump continues to make America great again.
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SOURCE: www.redstate.com
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