Judge says Fani Willis violated open records law, orders her to pay US$54K in attorneys' fees

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis looks on during a hearing on the Georgia election interference case, Friday, March, 1, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alex Slitz, Pool, File)

ATLANTA — A judge has ordered Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to pay more than US$54,000 in attorneys' fees and to turn over documents after finding that her office violated Georgia’s Open Records Act.

Attorney Ashleigh Merchant represents former Trump campaign staffer Michael Roman, one of the 18 people indicted in August 2023 along with President Donald Trump on allegations that they illegally tried to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia. Merchant sued in January 2024, alleging that the district attorney’s office had failed to turn over public records she had requested.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rachel Krause found that the failures to comply with the records law “were intentional, not done in good faith, and were substantially groundless and vexatious.” Because Willis and her office “lacked substantial justification” for not complying, Merchant is entitled to attorneys' fees and litigation expenses totaling just over $54,000, Krause found.

Krause ordered Willis to search for and turn over all records responsive to Merchant’s requests. The documents and payment are to be delivered within 30 days of Friday’s order.

A spokesperson for Willis' office said Monday that they plan to appeal the order.

Merchant posted Krause’s order on the social media platform X, writing, “Proud that we have judges willing to hold people in power accountable when they ignore the law!!!!”

Willis' office was “openly hostile” to Merchant and testimony showed that Merchant’s requests “were handled differently than other requests,” Krause wrote in her order. Open records officer Dexter Bond said during a hearing that he refused to communicate by phone with Merchant, even though it was his regular practice to call the requester if a request was unclear.

Treating Merchant’s requests this way “indicates a lack of good faith,” Krause wrote.

Among the records Merchant sought were reports provided to Willis' office by companies hired “to track the impact of Willis' statements to the media and whether such statements were viewed favorably by the public,” according to a court filing. The filing says Willis began contracting with those companies just before she and her office sought to indict Trump, Roman and others.

Merchant also asked for a copy of the non-disclosure or confidentiality agreement that employees of the district attorney’s office are required to sign, as well as a list of attorneys Willis had hired.

The Georgia Court of Appeals in December ruled that Willis and her office could not continue to prosecute the election interference case against Trump and others. Willis in January asked the Georgia Supreme Court to review and reverse that ruling, and the high court has not yet said whether it will take up the case.

The intermediate appeals court’s ruling was based on an “appearance of impropriety” created by a romantic relationship Willis had with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she had hired to lead the case. It was a bombshell filing by Merchant in January 2024 that first exposed that relationship publicly, alleging that the relationship created a conflict of interest that should disqualify Willis and her office from the case.

A grand jury in Atlanta indicted Trump and 18 others in August 2023, using the state’s anti-racketeering law to accuse them of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally try to overturn Trump’s narrow 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia. The alleged scheme included Trump’s call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger urging him to help find enough votes to beat Biden. Four people have pleaded guilty. Trump and the others, including Roman, have pleaded not guilty.

Even if the Georgia Supreme Court agrees to hear the case and eventually rules in Willis’ favor, it seems unlikely that she will be able to prosecute Trump while he’s the sitting president. But there are 14 other defendants, including Roman, who still face charges in the case.

Kate Brumback, The Associated Press