Fani Willis skips Georgia state Senate hearing seeking her testimony

(ATLANTA) — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is leading the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump, did not appear Friday at a hearing held by a Republican-led state Senate committee that has been investigating her.

Willis has challenged the legality of the subpoenas she received from the committee, a spokesperson for her office previously told ABC News.

The hearing today was set to include “sworn testimony” from Willis, according to a press release from the committee.

Willis’ attorney, former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that Willis “will not appear until there has been a judicial determination of the validity of the subpoena.”

Barnes did not respond Friday to a request for comment from ABC News.

Republican State Sen. Bill Cowsert, the chairman of the committee, said at the beginning of the hearing that “we have subpoenaed Fani Willis to testify … she is defying her subpoena and not appearing.”

“But we will welcome her if she appears at some point during the meeting,” Cowsert said, before continuing the hearing with other issues and witnesses.

Willis charged Trump and 18 others in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia. All defendants, including Trump, pleaded not guilty, then four defendants subsequently took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against the others.

The judge in the case, Scott McAfee, ruled in March that either Willis or prosecutor Nathan Wade must step aside from the case due to a “significant appearance of impropriety” stemming from a previous romantic relationship between Wade and Willis. Wade subsequently stepped down.

The Georgia Senate Special Committee on Investigations was established earlier this year with a stated goal to “thoroughly investigate the allegations of misconduct” by Willis.

It said it would look to “enact new or amend existing laws and/or change state appropriations to restore public confidence in the criminal justice system.”

Cowsert previously said it was not within the committee’s authority to seek to disqualify Willis from the election case or to criminally prosecute her, but rather to “investigate many of these troubling allegations.”

A Georgia court of appeals paused the election interference case in June, pending the resolution of a court battle over Willis’ being allowed to remain on the case..

Oral arguments in that matter are currently scheduled for Dec. 5, a month after the presidential election.

In a separate case, a Georgia state prosecutor said in a statement Friday that he would not pursue criminal charges against Lt. Gov. Burt Jones for acting as one of Trump’s so-called “fake electors” in the 2020 election.

Pete Skandalakis, the head of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, was tasked with investigating Jones after Willis was disqualified from investigating him in 2022 by a Fulton County judge after Willis held a fundraiser for Jones’ political opponent.

Skandalakis, in his decision Friday, wrote that the case against Jones “does not warrant further consideration” and that Jones “did not act with criminal intent” when he served as an alternate elector and aided Trump’s efforts in the state in other ways.

Jones was not indicted in Willis’ election interference probe.

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