Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Saturday defended herself in her first comments since a judge ruled she will not be disqualified from the Trump election interference case because of her affair with a former special prosecutor.
“I don’t feel like my reputation needs to be reclaimed,” Willis told CNN at an Easter egg hunt after she was asked how she felt in the wake of the saga that exposed her former affair with Nathan Wade, whom she hired as a special prosecutor in the Trump case.
“Let’s say it for the record, I’m not embarrassed by anything that I’ve done,” she added. “I guess my greatest crime is that I had a relationship with a man but that’s not something I find embarrassing in any way. I know I have not done anything that's illegal.”
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Earlier this month, Judge Scott McAfee ruled that while Willis’ relationship with Wade had a “significant appearance of impropriety,” it could be resolved if one of them stepped down from the racketeering case. Wade, who was hired as a special prosecutor in November 2021, resigned hours later—allowing Willis to continue to lead the case against Trump and others for allegedly trying to interfere with the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
McAfee’s ruling stemmed from a January defense motion to disqualify the DA that first exposed Willis and Wade’s romantic relationship. The two confirmed in a contentious evidentiary hearing that they had a private romantic relationship from early 2022 to last summer, but denied any wrongdoing. During the court’s investigation into the matter, the timeline of their relationship—and whether it had started before Wade was appointed to the case—came into question.
In his ruling, McAfee rebuked Willis’ combative testimony during the hearings, as well as her racially charged speech at an Atlanta Black church. “You think I‘m on trial? These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. I’m not on trial, no matter how hard you try to put me on trial,” Willis testified at the trial while rebuking one of the defense lawyers asking her questions.
Willis on Saturday said that despite the months-long saga, her team has not been “slowed down at all” and remained focused behind the scenes on the Trump case. There is currently no trial date set for the criminal case, though CNN reported earlier this week that Willis plans to schedule the trial this summer.
“I do think that there are efforts to slow down the train, but the train is coming,” Willis said of her prosecution team.
