ATLANTA – Georgia’s Senate passed a bill that could allow President Donald Trump and more than a dozen people to seek compensation for legal bills stemming from an attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.
The bill passed unanimously by state legislators Thursday would enable compensation from counties for attorneys’ fees and other legal costs in criminal cases in which a district attorney has been disqualified if the case gets dismissed, or compensation for the cost of arguing the district attorney should be disqualified.
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Trump and 18 co-defendants were indicted in Fulton County in August 2023. The accusations included asking Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to find enough votes for Trump to win the battleground state, harassing an election worker and attempting to persuade Georgia lawmakers to ignore the will of voters and appoint a new slate of electoral college electors.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified from the election interference case by a state appeals court based on a romantic relationship she had with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom Willis hired to lead the case.
Georgia Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones II, an Augusta Democrat, posed a different hypothetical.
“If you have that young person, possession of marijuana, whatever it may be, and the prosecutor has done something wrong and that case is dismissed because the prosecutor did something wrong, they’re entitled to have their attorney’s fees back,” Jones said. “That’s actually something that we probably would have pushed many years ago.”
Another bill passed the Senate Thursday that would give subpoena powers to State and House committees.
Both bills come a year after the state Senate passed a bill creating a special committee to investigate “various forms of misconduct" by Willis, including her relationship with Wade. The committee tried to subpoena Willis for a hearing last year but she did not appear. A judge later ruled the committee was allowed to subpoena her.
Nothing has come of the committee's investigation, but Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and other Republicans said last week they want to investigate Stacey Abrams.
They want to look deeper into recent ethics findings that voter participation group New Georgia Project improperly coordinated with Abrams' 2018 gubernatorial campaign. She would have been the first Black woman to serve as a U.S. governor but lost to Republican Brian Kemp, who defeated her again in a 2022 rematch.
They also want to investigate unsubstantiated claims by new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin that Abrams benefitted from $2 billion that a coalition of groups trying to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases received from President Joe Biden’s administration. Abrams says she received none of the money.
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Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Kramon on X: @charlottekramon.