Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis strode into the Georgia Senate investigative committee hearing room with a phalanx of aides and supporters, decked out in a flowing white coat trimmed by faux fur.
She arrived like a fighter approaching the ring. Or, more so, like a wrestler ready to perform, perhaps the flamboyant and cartoonishly self-assured Gorgeous George.
That image might be more apropos because the hearing at the state Capitol Wednesday had a choreographed hint of pro rasslin’ to it: OK, I’ll hit you with the folding chair. You look hurt and surprised and then toss me over the ropes.
The crowd will love it.
And both teams were playing to their respective crowds.
Willis and her counsel, former Gov. Roy Barnes, the self-professed “country lawyer,” noted that four of the GOP committee members are running for higher office. Some, he added, are even using Madame DA as a punching bag to raise money for their campaigns.
This is, no doubt, shocking — so much so that Willis is doing the exact same thing.
Just hours before the hearing, “Team Fani” sent out an email noting that she’s fighting back. Oh, by the way, can you please write a check for up to $3,300 for her next primary? (It will be held 2028, although it’s doubtful she will lose.)
Credit: handout
Credit: handout
Credit: handout
Credit: handout
News stories characterized her manner as combative, defiant and unapologetic. She was all of those. And more. I’d term it aggressive and blustery. Maybe even over the top.
She borrowed from the playbook of Gen. George Patton, who famously said the best defense is a good offense.
Willis called one question “ignorant” and another “dumbass.” Early on, she set the tone for the discourse, saying: “You have to forgive me, I really don’t trust you.”
She frequently brought up race, which some Black politicians will do when on the ropes, and that she was a female with a target on her back.
Willis was so vociferous that her Republican interrogators cut off her mic at least once.
Her foil, state Sen. Greg Dolezal (R–Cumming), who questioned her relentlessly for three-plus hours, was measured and imperturbable, trying to come across like the adult in the room.
The point of all this unpleasantness has been somewhat pushed into the background. President Donald Trump undoubtedly tried to steal the 2020 election, which he fairly lost. He called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, asking to “find” him votes while making veiled threats. His minions, hangers-on and toadies all tried various schemes to dislodge an election.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Willis indicted Trump and 18 others, but the case was lost by her own actions, hiring her boyfriend, Nathan Wade, to manage the case. It was a dumb move on her part, fueled by a hubris that seems to go with heading that office.
Her case cratered on that fact. But it should not gloss over what Trump and his flying monkeys tried to pull off.
Dolezal produced documents to suggest Willis was working with the federal committee investigating Jan. 6, 2021.
That opened the door for Barnes, who asked: “Is that the one where they stormed the Capitol?”
He added the Trumpy mob chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” because the former VP wasn’t going along with his boss’s scheme. People died because of that, she added.
When pressed further about travel by her aides, Willis noted they had to go to other locales to investigate Trump because “he committed crimes in a lot of places.”
Willis is among the top handful of folks on Trump’s enemies list, and The New York Times has reported his Department of Justice is sniffing around records in her office, possibly trying to make a case against her.
Dolezal had to pinch hit and lead the questioning because state Sen. Bill Cowsert, who headed the committee and pushed for months to get Willis to testify, was out for a medical procedure. He is running for state attorney general and has campaigned, partly, on going after Willis.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
She called his absence on Wednesday cowardice. But I can imagine he rued the fact that someone other than he was getting all that free TV time.
Dolezal tried to establish that Willis was itching to go after Trump and loaded up her team with attorneys to investigate the outgoing president for alleged election fraud. But she responded that she had already been sworn into office when Trump made his call to Raffensperger.
“I had no way of knowing that these criminals were going to commit a crime,” Willis said.
The DA complained that she has been hounded, threatened, investigated and called all sorts of terrible names.
“You think you’re going to intimidate me,” she snapped. “I’m not Marjorie Taylor Greene. I ain’t going to quit in a month,” referring to the GOP firebrand congresswoman who is stepping down from her office after getting sideways with Trump.
Asked about the cost of the investigation, she equivocated, as she often did during her responses. She knows her investigators were trying to lock her down in a misstatement or lie and possibly push for perjury charges.
“Whatever it cost, they tried to steal the rights of thousands of Georgians,” she said. “It couldn’t have been enough.”
What there certainly has been enough of is this case. And it would be good for everyone if it became a thing of the past.
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