Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis just got some more horrible news. A judge has ordered her to pay over $54,000 in attorney’s fees and hand over documents her office held in violation of Georgia’s Open Records Act.
Willis withheld important documentation related to the prosecution against President Donald Trump. Ashleigh Merchant, the attorney who filed an open records request to obtain information related to Willis’ inappropriate relationship with another prosecutor she had appointed to Trump’s case, said she had been “completely stonewalled” by Willis’ office in September 2023, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Merchant said she requested about a dozen sets of records from the DA’s office, including non-disclosure agreements employees are required to sign, a list of attorneys hired by Willis since taking office and receipts for the DA’s contract with a New York-based “media monitoring service.”
The ruling, issued Friday by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rachel Krause, marks a rare win for those seeking access to public records held by government agencies.
Krause determined the DA’s office failed to comply with Georgia’s Open Records Act by withholding public documents and said those failures “were intentional, not done in good faith, and were substantially groundless and vexatious.”
Because the DA’s office lacked justification for denying the records, Willis’ office must pay attorney fees and litigation expenses to Merchant, her husband, John, and the attorney couple’s paralegal, all of whom worked to get the records, the judge ruled.
I’m proud of my friends @AshleighMerchan and John Merchant for their pursuit of the truth in the Fani Willis Fiasco
— Phil Holloway ✈️ (@PhilHollowayEsq) March 17, 2025
Willis’ handling of requests indicates a lack of good faith. Defendants’ failures were intentional, not in good faith, were groundless and vexatious” pic.twitter.com/mJxfI2Zd30
The court order noted that Dexter Bond, the Open Records Custodian, was “openly hostile to counsel for Plaintiff, Ms. Merchant, and testified that Ms. Merchant’s requests were handled differently than other requests,” according to Fox News.
Bond, who testified that his usual practice was to call a requestor to receive additional information to fulfill requests, indicated that he refused to communicate with Merchant by telephone, the court order stated.
"While there is no requirement under the ORA for Mr. Bond to call any requestor about a particular request, Mr. Bond's handling of Ms. Merchant's requests in this manner indicates a lack of good faith," the order said. "Defendants’ failures were intentional, not done in good faith, and were substantially groundless and vexatious."
Proud that we have judges willing to hold people in power accountable when they ignore the law!!!! #faniwillis #openrecords #fultoncounty https://t.co/r1FFPMFf6J
— Ashleigh Merchant (@AshleighMerchan) March 14, 2025
This entire case was a mess. You would think that if you were a prosecutor trying to prosecute a presidential candidate to influence the outcome of an election, you would have your you-know-what together.
Yet, Willis’ team completely botched this case. The notion that they tried to conceal Willis’ affair with another prosecutor goes to show just how corrupt this office is. It’s good that the judge ruled in Merchant’s favor, but perhaps it is time to start discussing whether Willis should keep her job.
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