Judge says Fani Willis violated open records law, orders her to pay $54K
in attorneys' fees
[March 18, 2025]
By KATE BRUMBACK
ATLANTA (AP) — A judge has ordered Fulton County District Attorney Fani
Willis to pay more than $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 said she filed the lawsuit as a last resort after Willis'
office repeatedly failed to produce documents.
“We definitely didn't want to file suit,” she said. “They were just
ignoring it and telling us that documents didn't exist that we knew
existed and resisting at every move, so we really didn't have a choice.”
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.
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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)
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.
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