Fulton County Ethics Board Cancels Hearing on DA Fani Willis

The ethics board in Fulton County, Georgia, said Thursday it does not have authority to hear complaints about Democrat District Attorney Fani Willis.

The board scheduled to hear two complaints Thursday against Willis after details emerged of her secret romance with lawyer Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired to oversee the election interference case against former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants. But the board amended its schedule and canceled the hearing, The Hill reported.

The complaints were filed, The Hill reported, by Steven Kramer, a resident of Johns Creek, Georgia, in Fulton County, and by internet talk show host Gregory Mantell. Kramer questioned whether Willis improperly benefited from Wade’s hiring, and Mantell claimed in a Substack post that Willis violated “at least six sections and even more subsections” of the county ethics code.

When the ethics board meeting convened, Chair Daraka Satcher said the board did not have jurisdiction over the complaints because Willis is a state constitutional officer and not a county official subject to the ethics code, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Satcher said the State Ethics Commission has jurisdiction over district attorneys, but the AJC reported the state commission manages only campaign finance and lobbying violations.

Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia, told the AJC the State Bar of Georgia investigates alleged violations of rules of professional conduct for attorneys. The state bar recently was asked by The American Accountability Foundation, a conservative watchdog group, to open disciplinary proceedings against Willis and Wade for alleged ethical violations.

Skandalakis said the new Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission would have the authority to enforce rules and standards that it adopts. The eight-member commission was established last year by the Georgia Legislature to “discipline, remove, and cause involuntary retirement of appointed or elected district attorneys or solicitors general.”

Mantell told the AJC on Thursday he forwarded his complaint to the commission and to a special Senate committee created in January to investigate Willis. That Senate committee on Wednesday heard from Ashleigh Merchant, the attorney for Trump co-defendant Mike Roman who first filed a motion to remove Willis from the case after revealing the allegations surrounding Willis and Wade.