'Christmas comes tomorrow,' Fulton County DA Fani Willis says ahead of Georgia Senate committee testimony

Shaddi Abusaid, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Dec 16, 2025

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ATLANTA — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said her testimony before a Georgia Senate committee Wednesday will be like Christmas coming early.

Willis was asked about her plans to address the committee during a news conference about a recent Fulton County rape conviction.

What ensued was a two-minute tirade in which she criticized President Donald Trump, searing him over social media remarks he made about the recent stabbing deaths of filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, in Los Angeles.

“We are in a country that has leaders that don’t know how to lead,” Willis told a roomful of reporters.

Without mentioning Trump or the Reiners by name, Willis said the California domestic violence case struck her particularly hard and stirred up memories of her own aunt’s murder.

“I know what it does to a family when they are victimized,” Willis said. “And you got keyboard bullies all across this country who are depraved … they are depraved to actually attack families going through that kind of violence.”

Willis’ domestic violence unit is named for her aunt, Brenda Bayham, who was stabbed to death by her husband.

Willis’ attorney, former Gov. Roy Barnes, confirmed last week the DA would comply with a witness subpoena issued by the Georgia Senate’s Special Committee on Investigations.

The committee — chaired by state Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens — is investigating the operation of Willis’ office and her romantic relationship with onetime deputy prosecutor Nathan Wade, who she hired to assist with the 2020 election interference prosecution of Trump and his allies.

The committee has been trying since August 2024 to compel Willis’ testimony.

“Tomorrow, you’ll get Christmas,” she told a reporter Tuesday.

Willis also said that regardless of one’s political beliefs, it is never acceptable to glorify violence.

“No matter what side you are on the political aisle, we ought to stand up for victims,” she said.

She mentioned the October assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot while speaking at a university in Utah.

Kirk, Willis said, “never had a good thing to say about a Black woman.” But she said she still prayed for the 31-year-old’s widow and their two children.

“It doesn’t matter if he liked me as an individual,” she said. “He did not deserve to die in violence. Those people in Los Angeles did not deserve to die in violence.”

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