Fani Willis Skips Fulton County Primary Debate, Opponent Faces Empty Podium

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta, Ga., on March 1, 2024. Alex Slitz/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is handling former President Donald Trump’s election interference case, skipped a debate against her Democrat primary challenger on Sunday.

The debate was held by the Atlanta Press Club and was the first Democratic Party debate in the county. It was supposed to feature Ms. Willis and her Democrat challenger Christian Wise Smith, an attorney and author. However, Ms. Willis was absent from her podium when the debate began, leaving Mr. Smith alone on the stage. After providing a brief introduction of Mr. Smith, the moderator announced that Ms. Willis “declined to participate in the debate and is represented by an empty podium.”

Despite Ms. Willis’ absence, the moderator allowed Mr. Smith to pose his question to the Fulton County DA. “My question for you is: Where are you? You know I’m here because I care about the citizens and the families of Fulton County,” Mr. Smith asked.

“But it’s my understanding that you may have attended the White House correspondents’ dinner. You might be fundraising across the country. But what about us here in the Fulton County? What are you doing to address the issues in the jail? What are you doing to address the backlog? Where are you, Ms. Willis? That’s what we want to know.”

When asked whether he wanted to guess a rebuttal Ms. Willis would have given, Mr. Smith replied that he could not speak for the district attorney. However, “her absence is all the response that we need.”

Asked if he will continue pursuing the case against President Trump if he becomes the new Fulton County district attorney, Mr. Smith said that the issue “is important to us here in Fulton County and a lot of people across the country.”

Ms. Willis’ case against the former president charges him and over a dozen co-defendants with allegedly attempting to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 presidential race in Fulton County. President Trump has pleaded not guilty, claiming he is being wrongfully prosecuted in a bid to harm his chances of securing a second term in the 2024 presidential elections.

While Mr. Smith said President Trump’s case was important, he insisted that “you have to do things differently.” He criticized Ms. Willis for paying “one attorney nearly $1 million to handle one case.”

The $1 million Mr. Smith alluded to is potentially the $650,000 in payments that Ms. Willis allegedly paid special prosecutor Nathan Wade in the Trump case. Mr. Wade stepped down from the post after it was revealed he had been in a romantic relationship with Ms. Willis.

Mr. Smith pointed out that he has worked in the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office and that his salary was “significantly less than what that attorney was paid. And I was responsible for handling a lot more cases than one.”

The Democrat voters’ primary is scheduled for May 21, with the winner set to face off against a Republican challenger in the November elections.

Willis-Wade Scandal

Allegations of improper conduct between Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade emerged in early January when Ashleigh Merchant, representing Trump co-defendant Michael Roman, alleged that Mr. Wade was paid $650,000 since he was hired to handle the case and that he was in a romantic relationship with Ms. Willis before the hiring.

Ms. Merchant claimed Mr. Wade spent thousands of dollars on “lavish” vacations taken with Ms. Willis. Mr. Wade said he only entered into a romantic relationship with Ms. Willis after being hired for the case.

However, Ms. Willis’ former landlord testified that she saw Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade “kissing” and “hugging” each other as far back as 2019.

Data collected from Mr. Wade’s cellphone showed that he had called Ms. Willis thousands of times over several months before he was hired as a special prosecutor by the Fulton County district attorney on Nov. 1, 2021. The day after his appointment, Mr. Wade filed for divorce from his wife.

The matter went to court. On March 15, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled that either Ms. Willis or Mr. Wade had to resign from the case.

“An outsider could reasonably think that the district attorney is not exercising her independent professional judgment totally free of any compromising influences,” the judge said. “As long as Wade remains on the case, this unnecessary perception will persist.”

The same day Judge McAfee issued his judgment, Mr. Wade resigned from the case.

On March 29, President Trump’s attorneys appealed Judge McAfee’s decision to allow Ms. Willis to continue handling the case.

“Dismissal is the truly appropriate remedy because the disqualification of DA Willis and her office cannot fully undo the damage caused to Defendants and their due process rights,” the appeal said.

“But her disqualification is the minimum that must be done to remove the stain of her legally improper and plainly unethical conduct from the remainder of the case.”

Ms. Willis has asked the court to dismiss President Trump’s appeal. A ruling on the appeal is due to be made by May 13.

Back in February, President Trump slammed the case in a Truth Social post. “It was a FAKE CASE from the start, and now everybody sees it for what it is, a MAJOR LEAGUE SCANDAL!” he wrote.

“The legal pundits, experts, and scholars are all screaming that this Witch Hunt, which has hurt so many fine people and patriots, should be immediately terminated and permanently erased from everyone’s memory. The stench of what has happened should shame Georgia no longer.”