Fani Willis Mum on How Much Her Failed Prosecution of Trump Cost Her County

Fulton County, Georgia, could be on the hook for some $17 million in legal fees stemming from Fani Willis’s racketeering case against President Trump and 18 others — but the actual cost of that failed prosecution could be much dearer for the state’s taxpayers.That total of $17 million is the amount provided by the defendants in the 2023 election interference case brought by the district attorney. It includes some $6 million in bills accumulated by Mr. Trump, with the rest accrued by his co-defendants. Those defendants are pushing for reimbursement from Fulton County under a new state law that mandates that if a prosecutor is disqualified from a case and the charges are dropped, the defendants are owed compensation.The law would appear pertinent to Ms. Willis’s circumstances. She was disqualified by the Georgia Court of Appeals in 2024 after that tribunal found that “this is the rare case in which disqualification is mandated and no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings.” The Georgia Supreme Court declined to take up her appeal, and the case against Mr. Trump was soon abandoned by an independent prosecutor. Ms. Willis argues that the law is both facially unconstitutional and inapplicable to her circumstances. While the trial judge, Scott McAfee, initially ruled that she could not contest the issue of who pays the bills because of her disqualification, he allowed her to make her case to the Georgia Court of Appeals, a petition that is still pending. Ms. Willis would be liable to pay in her official rather than personal capacity, meaning that the bill would come due to taxpayers.The emerging question, though, is just how much Fulton County will have to pay in addition to the defendants’ legal bills. The district attorney’s budget has grown to $39.4 million from $26.3 million since the 2020 election that was at the center of Ms. Willis’s case. Public records also indicate that Ms. Willis’s handpicked special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, was paid some $770,000 for his service to Fulton County despite never having prosecuted a case before. Outside lawyers retained to assist with the prosecution were paid around one million dollars.The Sun requested a more thorough accounting but did not receive a response. Other expenses could include pay for county prosecutors, investigators and staff, travel expenses, meals, security, press relations, and the cost of empaneling a bespoke grand jury. Ms. Willis, an elected Democrat, won reelection this fall with some 70 percent of the vote. Ms. Willis’s office is also facing an open records request relating to the cost of prosecuting Mr. Trump and his associates from an organization that focuses on accountability owed to taxpayers by local government, The Center Square. The group has yet to receive a response from Ms. Willis, notwithstanding the mandate from Peach State law that such requests must be responded to within three business days or with a detailed timetable for when disclosures can be expected. Ms. Willis’s office has in the past been so derelict with respect to fulfilling open records requests that judges have imposed fines totalling more than $50,000. One of the two Republicans on Fulton County’s seven commissioners, Bridget Thorn, said in a statement with respect to Ms. Willis’s expenditures that “taxpayers certainly didn’t get anything back from it. If anything, they got things taken away from it. Courts that weren’t moving, cases that weren’t being indicted, people that were in jail too long, overcrowding the jail, people dying in our jail, filing lawsuits.”Attorney Manny Arora, who represented one of Ms. Willis’s defendants, Kenneth Chesebro, declared in his own statement that “it would be very embarrassing for the DA’s office to disclose how much time, resources and effort were spent on this case that amounted to essentially nothing. The taxpayers have a right to know.” Mr. Chesebro, a legal adviser to Mr. Trump and erstwhile protégé of the liberal legal scholar Laurence Tribe, pleaded guilty in the case before its eventual dismissal. Ms. Willis’s disqualification stems from her secret romance with Mr. Wade. During his employment by Fulton County the two vacationed together to Napa Valley, Aruba, and Belize. While the couple denied dating before Mr. Wade was hired, evidence adduced by the defendants in the case showed that the two exchanged thousands of telephone calls and text messages before Mr. Wade joined Ms. Willis’s team.Ms. Willis has also faced scrutiny — most notably from Congressman Jim Jordan — over her office’s use of federal funds. The acting U.S. attorney general, Todd Blanche, has indicated that he intends to probe her operations.

Fani Willis Mum on How Much Her Failed Prosecution of Trump Cost Her County

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