Georgia Judge Orders Fani Willis to Clarify Trump Records Search

A Georgia state judge has ordered Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to supply further information on the steps her office took to locate records tied to her racketeering investigation of former President Donald Trump and potential coordination with U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith. The ruling came in an open-records lawsuit brought by conservative watchdog Judicial Watch, which argues Willis repeatedly denied the existence of responsive documents before belatedly producing some materials earlier this year. In a March 7 court directive, Willis was told to hand over 212 pages of emails, text messages and other files and to explain how they were discovered. The court also awarded Judicial Watch $21,578 in legal fees after finding the district attorney in default for earlier non-compliance. While Willis has since submitted an affidavit and turned over the records for in-camera review, the judge said the filing omitted key details on whether the devices of former special prosecutor Nathan Wade and Chief Investigator Michael L. Hill were searched, and it lacked the search protocol used for Willis’s own communications. The latest order gives Willis 14 days to produce search terms and data sources for Wade, Hill and herself, and to conduct any additional searches if those devices have not yet been examined. Any new records must be delivered to the court under seal for a determination on whether they may be released under Georgia’s Open Records Act. The underlying criminal case against Trump and 18 co-defendants, filed in August 2023, remains pending.