From Prosecutor to Political Punchline: The Rise and Fall of Fani Willis

Guest Opinion by Perry Hooper, Jr.

Just in time for Thanksgiving, Fani Willis has given America something truly special to be grateful for. After years of wasting Georgia’s money, embarrassing her office, and paying her boyfriend with taxpayer funds, her Trump witch hunt finally collapsed right before the holiday weekend. What perfect timing. While families across Georgia are carving turkeys, Willis is carving up the last remnants of her credibility. It is almost as if she wanted this story buried under sweet potato casserole and football games, hoping nobody would notice that one of the most expensive political stunts in state history just died with a whimper. 

After years of grandstanding, press conferences dressed up as justice, and millions of Georgia taxpayer dollars poured into what was always an obvious partisan stunt, her case against President Donald J. Trump is officially dead. Finished. Tossed out. Judge Scott McAfee dismissed the wreckage on Wednesday after the neutral prosecutor who inherited the mess told him bluntly that it was time to take this embarrassment off life support.

Fani Willis’ handpicked replacement did not defend her work. He did not try to salvage her theories. He did not pretend the case had merit. He flat out said the whole thing did not meet the standard for prosecution.

When even your successor thinks your case is unserious, it was never a case in the first place. It was a political hit job. It was lawfare. It was everything Republicans have warned about for years.

The political persecution of President Trump by the disqualified Fani Willis is finally over. And it failed for one reason. It was never rooted in law. It was rooted in her ambition, her ego, and her desire to be the Democrats’ next progressive icon.

Steve Sadow, President Trump’s lead Georgia defense counsel, said it plainly. This case should never have been brought. A fair and impartial prosecutor put an end to this lawfare. That is the truth. And Georgia taxpayers paid dearly for Willis’ obsession with attacking President Trump.

While Fulton County neighborhoods struggle with violent crime, while citizens beg for basic safety, while police officers work overtime in dangerous conditions, Fani Willis spent millions of public dollars chasing tweets, phone calls, hearing invitations, and political theatre. Her “evidence” included arranging a phone call, sending a tweet telling people to watch a hearing, answering a phone call, issuing public statements, and other routine political actions that are protected by the First Amendment and completely irrelevant to the criminal code of Georgia.

Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia Executive Director Pete Skandalakis spelled it out with embarrassing clarity. Overt acts such as arranging a phone call, tweeting to the public to watch the Georgia Senate subcommittee hearings, texting someone to attend those hearings, or simply answering a call are not acts sufficient to sustain a RICO case. They never have been. They never will be. Only a politically motivated prosecutor desperate for a headline would pretend otherwise.

And why was he the one to say it? Because he could not find a single attorney in the state of Georgia willing to touch the case after Willis was disqualified. After her sordid scandal involving the secret relationship, the payments to her boyfriend, the extravagant trips funded by taxpayer dollars, and the glaring ethical violations broadcast on national television, not one prosecutor wanted to be associated with her handiwork.

This entire fiasco cost Georgia taxpayers millions of dollars. Millions wasted so that Fani Willis and her boyfriend, who she hired and paid with public funds, could play prosecutor on television while taking vacations together. Millions were wasted for televised press conferences designed to make Willis a national political celebrity. Millions were wasted on a RICO fantasy so flimsy that even Jack Smith and the federal government wanted nothing to do with it.

And let us be honest. This is not just a Fulton County problem. This is part of the Democrat Party’s national lawfare machine. They wasted millions in New York. Millions in Washington. Millions in Florida courts. Millions in special counsel salaries. Millions on weaponized investigations, rogue prosecutors, and political stunts pretending to be justice.

Every time one of these cases collapses, Democrats shrug and walk away. But taxpayers do not walk away. They foot the bill. They fund the witch hunts. They pay for the vendettas. And they get nothing in return but deeper division and less trust in the justice system.

Meanwhile, President Donald J. Trump is fighting for this country alongside heroes like Coach Tommy Tuberville, standing tall against this nonstop assault from the radical left. And each time, truth keeps winning. Justice keeps winning. And the American people see exactly what is going on.

Fani Willis did not just lose a case. She exposed everything that is wrong with the weaponization of the legal system. She wasted public money, abused her office, violated ethical standards, embarrassed her state, and misled the country.

There is no victory here for Willis. There is only accountability. The truth has caught up with her. And millions of taxpayers, not just in Georgia, deserve an apology and a refund.

The lawfare against President Trump is crumbling. And today, one of the ugliest chapters finally closed.

Perry O. Hooper Jr. is a longtime Alabama Republican figure, former Alabama Legislator and Montgomery businessman. He served as Co-Chair of “Alabama Trump Victory” in 2016, and served as an at-large delegate to the Republican National Convention. He is a noted civic leader in Montgomery with deep family roots in Alabama’s legal and political history.

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