By Holly Bailey, The Washington PostFulton County District Attorney Fani Willis arrives before she speaks after winning re-election in the primary on Tuesday, May 21, 2024, in Buckhead, Ga.
Meanwhile, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who is presiding over the election case, was elected to his first full term since being appointed to the court last year, defeating challenger Robert Patillo, according to the Associated Press. Willis’s leadership and judgment has faced intense scrutiny in recent months amid allegations that she hired a romantic partner to lead the criminal case against Trump. In March, McAfee ruled Willis could continue prosecuting the Trump case, as long as Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she had appointed and had a romantic relationship with, resigned.
Wise Smith, a former Fulton County prosecutor who previously challenged Willis for district attorney in 2020, did not make the case a focal point of his campaign — though he was critical of Willis’s handling of the matter. In a recent interview with Atlanta’s WXIA, he suggested Willis’s focus on the Trump case had left other cases neglected by “so much focus and energy and time and resources and manpower really going into one case.