Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, already mired in controversy, is now facing a familiar foe. Christian Wise Smith, a former prosecutor with Fulton County, is officially throwing his hat in the ring to challenge Willis for her position once more.
Having announced his intention to qualify earlier in the month, Wise Smith, a Democrat, initially appeared to be on the fence. However, he’s now doubling down, confirming his bid to run for the DA position. This isn’t the first time Wise Smith has aimed to unseat Willis. According to Fox5 Atlanta, he ran a 2020 campaign against Willis focused on overhauling the local justice system.Willis, the incumbent District Attorney, faces not just one, but two challengers. Alongside Christian Wise Smith, enters Courtney Kramer, a Republican and associate attorney for The Katz Law Group. Kramer, while not widely known in the predominantly Democratic landscape of Fulton County, brings a noteworthy background to the contest.
She has served as a litigation consultant for former President Donald Trump’s legal team, and held the position of special counsel for the Georgia Republican Party under the leadership of David Shafer—a co-defendant with Trump in the Georgia case. Her campaign is poised to capitalize on Willis’ recent challenges, signaling a heated race ahead.Over the weekend Willis claimed that she was not worried after Judge Scott McAfee re-opened the disqualification case into Willis’ conduct, instead claiming that a “train is coming” for former President Trump. While speaking with CNN, Willis said that her record is clean and opted to once again throw her former lover, Nathan Wade, under the bus.“I don’t feel like my reputation needs to be reclaimed. Let’s say it for the record, I’m not embarrassed by anything I’ve done. You know, I guess my greatest crime is I had a relationship with a man, but that’s not something that I find embarrassing in any way. And I know that I have not done anything that’s illegal,” she said.
“I don’t feel like we’ve been slowed down at all. I do think way that it needed to be done. I don’t feel like we’ve been slowed down at all. I do think that there are efforts to slow down this train, but the train is coming,” she added.
Despite the prosecutor’s claims, a number of legal analysts have all but written off the possibility of Willis’ massive, unprecedented RICO case against former President Trump and a number of his associates going to trial before election day. Another RICO case brought by Willis’ office against members of the YSL rap label has pressed on at an incredibly slow pace, with jury selection alone taking more than a year.
In addition to the short timeline, Willis is still under threat of disqualification due to perjury allegations and alleged misuse of county funds.The case stems from Willis’ hiring of Nathan Wade as a special prosecutor to work on her RICO case against former President Trump. Willis did not disclose that she was having an affair with Wade — who was paid $700,000 for his work on the case and took several lavish trips with the district attorney — until it was exposed as part of Wade’s divorce proceedings.
While both Willis and Wade testified that the relationship began when he was hired to work on the case in 2022, a former office employee testified that it began as early as 2021.Though McAfee did not disqualify Willis outright in his ruling earlier this month, he did acknowledge impropriety on the part of both Wade and Willis. Wade was forced to resign in order for Willis to remain on the case, though the embattled district attorney is far from in the clear, as McAfee has approved a re-opening of the hearing.
