A judge has ordered Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to pay more than $54,000 in attorneys’ fees and litigation costs for violating the state’s open records laws in relation to the case against President Trump.

Superior Court Judge Rachel Krause said Willis “intentionally” failed to provide records requested by attorney Ashleigh Merchant, who represents former Trump campaign staffer Michael Roman.

Fox News reports:

Krause stated that Willis’ office failed to provide documents related to the employment of Nathan Wade, the former special assistant district attorney forced to resign from the Trump case due to his romantic relationship with Willis.

Merchant believed that Willis and Wade may have financially benefited from Wade’s appointment as the special prosecutor in the case.

“Defendants — through the Open Records custodian, Dexter Bond — were openly hostile to counsel for Plaintiff, Ms. Merchant, and testified that Ms. Merchant’s requests were handled differently than other requests,” the court order said.

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Bond, who testified that his usual practice was to call a requestor to receive additional information to fulfill requests, indicated that he refused to communicate with Merchant by telephone, the court order stated.

“While there is no requirement under the ORA for Mr. Bond to call any requestor about a particular request, Mr. Bond’s handling of Ms. Merchant’s requests in this manner indicates a lack of good faith,” the order said. “Defendants’ failures were intentional, not done in good faith, and were substantially groundless and vexatious.”

From the Associated Press:

Because Willis and her office “lacked substantial justification” for not complying, Merchant is entitled to attorneys’ fees and litigation expenses totaling just over $54,000, Krause found.

Krause ordered Willis to search for and turn over all records responsive to Merchant’s requests. The documents and payment are to be delivered within 30 days of Friday’s order.

A spokesperson for Willis’ office said Monday that they plan to appeal the order.

Merchant said she filed the lawsuit as a last resort after Willis’ office repeatedly failed to produce documents.

“We definitely didn’t want to file suit,” she said. “They were just ignoring it and telling us that documents didn’t exist that we knew existed and resisting at every move, so we really didn’t have a choice.”

Willis’ office was “openly hostile” to Merchant and testimony showed that Merchant’s requests “were handled differently than other requests,” Krause wrote in her order. Open records officer Dexter Bond said during a hearing that he refused to communicate by phone with Merchant, even though it was his regular practice to call the requester if a request was unclear.

 

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