Disputed Fact
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis used Georgia’s RICO statute to indict five lawyers who had provided legal advice to the Trump campaign — Giuliani, Powell, Eastman, Chesebro, and Ellis — charging specific legal-service activities, including the drafting of legal memoranda and the filing of a federal court complaint, as predicate criminal acts.[1] The prosecution was funded through public fees paid to Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade, with whom Willis maintained a personal financial relationship that a Fulton County Superior Court judge found created a “significant appearance of impropriety.”[2] The Georgia Court of Appeals subsequently disqualified Willis and her entire office on that ground, and all charges were dismissed in November 2025.[3],[4] The structural question — whether public prosecution funds were used to finance a personal financial relationship that gave the chief prosecutor a personal stake in expanding the prosecution — was identified by the trial court as an unresolved appearance issue and remains the subject of an active Georgia Senate investigation.
Citations
State of Georgia v. Donald J. Trump et al., Indictment No. 23SC188947, Fulton County Superior Court, August 14, 2023 (Chesebro memo overt acts at ¶¶ 39, 46; Ellis memo overt acts at ¶¶ 107, 126; Eastman Jan. 6 memo at ¶ 94; Eastman/Trump federal court filing charged as predicate “filing false documents,” Count 27, O.C.G.A. § 16-10-20.1): https://www.fultonclerk.org/DocumentCenter/View/2108/CRIMINAL-INDICTMENT
Order on Motion to Disqualify, Hon. Scott McAfee, Fulton County Superior Court, March 15, 2024 (“significant appearance of impropriety”; “regular and loose exchange of money without any exact or verifiable measure of reconciliation”; “possibility and appearance that the District Attorney benefited — albeit non-materially — from a contract whose award lay solely within her purview”; $653,881 paid to Wade from public prosecution funds): https://thehill.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/20240315-order-on-motion-to-disqualify10.pdf
Georgia Court of Appeals, Willis v. Roman, December 19, 2024 (disqualifying Willis and her entire office; “no other solution will restore public trust in the integrity of these proceedings”): https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/19/politics/fani-willis-donald-trump-georgia
Reuters, “Trump Wins Dismissal of Georgia 2020 Election Interference Case,” November 26, 2025 (all charges dismissed in entirety by Judge McAfee following Willis disqualification): https://www.reuters.com/world/us/georgia-prosecutor-drops-election-interference-case-against-trump-cnn-reports-2025-11-26/
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “Nathan Wade Defends Georgia’s Trump Prosecution to Senate Committee,” March 13, 2026 (Georgia Senate Special Committee on Investigations, created January 2024, continued taking testimony as of March 2026 on whether Willis’s financial relationship with Wade constituted improper use of public funds): https://www.ajc.com/politics/2026/03/nathan-wade-defends-georgias-trump-prosecution-to-senate-committee/