atlanta — Georgia Republicans are pushing for more restrictions on local prosecutors, saying their investigation into Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis proves the moves are necessary.
In August 2023, Willis obtained an indictment against Trump And 18 othersIt accused them of participating in a large-scale scheme to illegally attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. That was the case He was fired in November After the courts barred Willis and her office from pursuing the matter due to “the appearance of impropriety” stemming from a romantic relationship she had with the prosecutor she appointed to lead the case.
Several state senators who supported the measure the chamber passed on Friday are running for statewide offices, with primaries scheduled for May 19. The fate of legislation related to local prosecutors is unclear in the House, which is less partisan than the Senate, although it remains under GOP control.
The measure passed by the Senate adds more grounds why local prosecutors could be disciplined or removed by a commission created in 2024 to provide oversight over Georgia’s elected prosecutors, as well as the elected public defenders who prosecute lower-level crimes in some counties.
This procedure allows the commission to discipline prosecutors for violating bar rules, failing to notify crime victims of a prosecutor’s actions, failing to comply with public records requests, or showing “undue bias or bias” against the person being prosecuted.
“We have been presented with a significant amount of evidence, testimony about the conduct of prosecutors, and the lack of public confidence in the independence and impartiality of state prosecutors,” said State Sen. Bill Cosert, an Athens Republican running for attorney general.
Cosert denied that the action was aimed at Willis, but Republican Gov. Bert Jones, whom Trump endorsed in his run for governor, saw it differently.
“But Fanny Willis’ legal war on President Trump and his allies has highlighted the importance of oversight by the Prosecutor’s Qualifications Commission,” Jones said in a statement. “This bill gives PAQC the ability to pursue prosecutors who refuse to be transparent, who engage in unprofessional attorney behavior, and who do not take seriously their duties to crime victims.”
Of the 140 complaints filed with the commission in 2025, only three related complaints about the same public defender in a rural county were dismissed. Washington County Prosecutor Michael Howard resigned in July while he was being investigated, and agreed not to run for prosecutor again.
Earlier in the session, senators approved a bill to strengthen the committee’s investigative authority. But it’s a relatively minor consequence of the investigation, including appearance By Willis herself in December when she engaged in a back-and-forth fight with Republican Sen. Greg Dolezal, who is running for lieutenant governor.
A second measure was defeated Friday that would have made prosecutors and some other county officials elected on a nonpartisan basis in five Democratic-dominated metro Atlanta counties. That would have included Willis, a Democrat. Sen. Ed Setzler, a Republican from Acworth, said nonpartisan officials would be more effective and efficient. But the measure failed after eight Republicans voted against it.
The third measure originally would have allowed Georgia’s prosecutor to intervene in serious criminal cases without the prosecutor’s approval, but Democrats supported the measure after Cosert watered it down to allow district attorneys to request assistance.
The state Senate created the Special Committee on Investigations in January 2024 to Examine claims On charges of misconduct against Willis, an elected Democrat, in connection with her impeachment of Trump.