In short
The episode focuses on Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s appearance before the Georgia State Senate, where MAGA Republicans attempted to cross-examine her to undermine her credibility. It claims Willis “backfires” by calling questions ignorant, insisting she was already DA when the 2020 election issues surfaced, and saying it’s factually impossible that she discussed investigating the 2020 election before taking office. Key claims include that she brought the election-interference conspiracy case because people broke the law in her jurisdiction and that she will indict again if crimes occur. Notable examples she cites: indictments across states involving Trump, John Eastman, Gina Ellis, Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Mike Roman, and Ruby Freeman’s value to her.
Guests
none mentioned; the transcript centers on Willis and senators.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOGoFundMe for Autistic Child
0:00 to 0:56
Learn about a GoFundMe initiative aimed at supporting an adoptive mother of a nonverbal autistic child.
“My name is Mackenzie and I started a GoFundMe for the adoptive mother of a nonverbal autistic child.”
Fani Willis Stands Strong
3:30 to 5:16
Fulton County DA Fani Willis discusses her resolve amid intimidation from MAGA Republicans.
“And you think that you're going to intimidate me.”
Cross-Examination Insights
5:16 to 6:33
An analysis of the cross-examination of Fani Willis and her responses to provocative questions.
“When did you begin to consider whether to bring charges in response to the 2020 presidential election in Georgia?”
Election Interference Case
6:33 to 12:45
Fani Willis explains her rationale for prosecuting election interference in Georgia.
“If you take a look at the screen for me, if you will.”
Indictments Across States
12:45 to 14:01
Discussion on various indictments related to election fraud and the individuals involved.
“If the people of this jurisdiction, the 19th, voted Senator Blake Tillery to be that senator, then I have to work to make sure that he is instilled into office.”
Fani Willis's Cross-Examination Insights
14:01 to 17:20
Learn about the key points and challenges in Fani Willis's cross-examination.
“And I want you to watch as Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis just goes through what went down here.”
MAGA Establishment's Tactics and Fani's Resilience
17:21 to 19:25
Discover how the MAGA establishment attempts to undermine Fani Willis and her response.
“Willis goes back to that Macca Republican state senator and goes, look, sir, I've told you I don't trust you.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00My name is Mackenzie and I started a GoFundMe for the adoptive mother of a nonverbal autistic child. The mother had lost her job because she wasn't able to find adequate care for this autistic child. So she really needed some help with living expenses, paying some back bills. So I launched a GoFundMe to help support them during this crisis. And we raised about$10 ,000 within just a couple of months. I think that the surprising thing was by telling a clear story and just like really being very clear about what we needed. We had some really generous donations from people who were really moved by the situation that this family was struggling with.
0:47GoFundMe is the world's number one fundraising platform trusted by over 200 million people. Start your GoFundMe today at GoFundMe.com. That's GoFundMe.com. GoFundMe.com. This podcast is supported by GoFundMe. Whether you're solving murders during breakfast, cracking cold cases on your commute, or playing amateur detective at bedtime, Amazon Music's got millions of podcast episodes waiting. Just download the Amazon Music app and start listening to your favorite true crime podcasts ad-free. Included with Prime.
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3:11Sessions average about$21 with insurance and some pay as little as$0 depending on their plan. Visit growtherapy.com slash book now to get started. That's growtherapy.com slash book now. Growtherapy.com slash book now. Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan. You all want to intimidate people from doing the right thing. And you think that you're going to intimidate me. But you see, I'm not Marjorie Taylor Greene. I ain't going to quit in a month because somebody threatens me.
3:40Ben Meiselas:Did you hear what Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis said there? She goes, I'm not going to be intimidated like Marjorie Taylor Greene because you're threatening me. If you think you're going to make me quit, I ain't going to quit. So Fulton County District Attorney Fawnie Willis attended a hearing that she was compelled to show up at within the Georgia State Senate. The MAGA Republicans on the Georgia State Senate wanted to bring Fawnie Willis there to attack her, to try to attack her credibility. But Fawnie Willis turned the tables on the MAGA Republicans in that Senate. I'm going to show you a portion of this hearing that took place last week.
4:22Ben Meiselas:And by the way, I apologize for not bringing you this hearing last week. It was a few days ago when this hearing took place, the 17th, and I should have been covering it, but better late than never because this is some explosive stuff right here, and I know you probably missed it. So here you have a MAGA Republican senator start to try to cross-examine Fawnie Willis, and she's just incredibly, you know, pushes back and stands on business and says, you know what, first off, you're asking me pretty dumb questions here. She goes, that's a dumbass question you just asked me. But let me explain to you what went down.
4:58Ben Meiselas:Where people commit crimes in this jurisdiction, where people are criminals in Fulton County, my job is to prosecute them. I would do it again. They're criminals. Trump's a criminal. The co-conspirators are criminals. And I'm not scared and I'm not intimidated by you. Here, watch this incredible clip right here. Let's play it. When did you begin to consider whether to bring charges in response to the 2020 presidential election in Georgia? Don't answer that. That's a deliberative privilege. Don't answer that. I instruct you not to answer. Is it true that part of your transition team was involved in the process of interviewing people before you entered office to lead the investigation to the 2020 presidential election?
5:43I'd like to answer that. Go right ahead. You only take my advice sometimes. That's really an ignorant question. And if you understand what the word ignorant means, it means the lack of knowledge. If you recall the facts, I was already district attorney when this all came to light. So it's factually impossible. You were district attorney when what came to light? When Raffensperger went on Good Morning America or whatever show he went on. I was already district attorney. So what you ask is a factual impossibility. Now, I know they've gotten black folks confused and said, I was running for office saying I was going to prosecute the president of the United States.
6:32But that's what we call a lie. OK, I would like to. From here on out, OK. Yeah.
6:48If you take a look at the screen for me, if you will. this is from Mr. Wade's deposition to members of Jim Jordan's committee. And he was asked for the search committee. You said that began when D.A. Willis took office on January 1, 2021. Is that correct? Yes. And there was outreach to you to be part of the search committee prior to January, 2021, January 1, 2021. Absolutely. When did that start? Sometime after the election or prior to her taking office. Okay. So between the election, you're referring to November, 2020 election. Is that correct? Yes, ma 'am. And so when you had conversations with individuals, you said on multiple occasions, you said who said you said no.
7:28And you turned down the position. Who were those conversations with? They were with the district attorney. So I think you're confusing facts. We've already had a long conversation about I interviewed everybody at the D.A.'s office and I interviewed other people to come and work at the district attorney's office. And as I told you, I did that on my free time before I became DA. But I had no way of knowing that these criminals were going to commit a crime. And that did not come to light until January of 2021 when I'm actually the DA. So it is a factual impossibility, like I already told you. I think that that is misinterpreted.
8:06He's absolutely correct. We looked for talent for the district attorney's office before I became the DA. I didn't wait to the day I took office to look for talent that would represent my office. But I was unable to look for talent for a case that didn't exist before I took office. It's factually impossible. I mean, it's common sense. You don't need to be a lawyer.
8:32I'm going to read you some additional testimony. I'll try to put it on the screen. You can read me as much as you want. And I will. Thank you, Madam D.A.
8:44And I apologize, I did not intend to have to get into this here.
8:57What was the, when Mr. Wade says that there was an interview on line 13, as you'll see here, this is prior to you entering office. What were you interviewing him for? I didn't interview him prior to him entering office. He had a thriving law practice. even when he ends up being offered the position, he doesn't want it. Okay.
9:24So it's your testimony today that you and Mr. Wade did not have any conversations prior to you taking office relative to an investigation into the 2020 election. Don't answer that. That is a deliberative privilege of what goes on in a district attorney's mind in the process. She wasn't district attorney. She was. Prior to being sworn in, she was district attorney? No, she was not. But you asked. I'll return to my question. Prior to you being sworn in as district attorney, is it your testimony today that you did not have any conversation with Mr. Wade about investigating the 2020 election?
10:06Do you want to answer? It's a dumb ass question. I know it is. Go ahead and tell it because it occurred after she took office. But I didn't know that he was going to commit a crime prior to me taking office. Like, factually, it's impossible.
10:22Ben Meiselas:OK, thank you. Then you can see right here that this is the longer clip where Fannie Willis says that I'm not Marjorie Taylor Greene. And you can see that she just doesn't give a crap what these MAGA Republicans are trying to do. Watch as she goes scorched earth on state Senator MAGA Republican Greg DeLiesel, who's also running for lieutenant governor here. Watch this. You all want to intimidate people from doing the right thing. And you think that you're going to intimidate me. You all have been trying to intimidate me for five years, which is why I have not been able to live in my house for five years, because the N word has been written on my house.
11:00thousands of threats have come to my office and instead of doing some legislation when someone no no no when someone says something inflammatory that you know is going to cause them to be the victims of crime you ought to do something about it but you see i'm not marjorie taylor green i ain't gonna quit in a month because somebody threatens me i took an oath to do the right thing people came into my community and committed a crime and i indicted them and rest assured if If someone else comes in my community and commits a crime, I will indict them again.
11:31Ben Meiselas:Now, here during testimony before the state Senate committee, Fulton County District Attorney Fawnie Willis then talked about why she took the election interference case. Here, play this clip. Let me turn your mic on. One final one, you kind of touched on it. At the end of the day, this case here, this conspiracy case that took place, why did you bring this case? because folks came in my jurisdiction and broke the law. And as elected officials, there are things that are precious and that are our responsibility. One in a free society is keeping people safe, right? And I stand on the line, keeping people safe every single day.
12:09I have dedicated my entire career to making sure that people are safe and that they feel valued, children feel valued, no matter who you are. See, I'm not like these people. I believe in diversity. I've sat on my floor and cried with little white children, black children, Spanish children, and I fight with my last breath to keep those people safe. But I have also prosecuted black people, white people, Asian people. It doesn't matter to me. It seems to matter to some. So I brought this case because they came in this jurisdiction and broke the law, and they didn't only break the law here, they broke it other places, because the other thing that we have to do as a free society is we have to protect elections.
12:47It is important. If the people of this jurisdiction, the 19th, voted Senator Blake Tillery to be that senator, then I have to work to make sure that he is instilled into office. If someone does something, goes into a voting booth like they did in Coffey County, they do that. If they threaten workers, these little old people that work the polls, how dare somebody threaten them? And how dare you all not take that to be important? Is it not important because it was an older black female? It ought to be important to everybody. that's who you all are here to protect those that cannot protect themselves and i'm willing to stand on the line so y 'all can keep threatening me keep bringing me these committees keep auditing me and i'm gonna keep doing my job with excellence all right and here she says i'm not afraid i'll i'll
13:31Ben Meiselas:indict the guy again if i have to here play this clip trying to keep people safe and y 'all have me in here with this foolishness i indicted him i'm indict him again if they committed a crime in my jurisdiction i don't care if you like it it's not 1940 no let me get to this it's not 1948. I know that you're offended. I didn't. So here's the question. Rich white men, but I would do it again, but I would also fight with my last breath to see that they were protected. Then you had a Democratic state senator here asking her some questions towards the end of the hearing. And I want you to watch as Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis just goes through what went down here.
14:10Ben Meiselas:Let's play this clip right here. Right now, just yesterday, a judge in Wisconsin said you're going to face charges, 11 charges based on similar scheme that took place in Georgia. No, and it should be noted that Roman was indicted in three separate states and that many of the co-defendants were indicted in separate states because, you know, and let's be clear. So the record is clear in my indictment in Arizona. They indicted John Eastman, Gina Ellis, Wilbur Giuliani, Mark Meadows and Mike Roman. Mike Roman was represented by Merchant who came here and testified in Wisconsin. They also indicted Cheeseboro and Roman.
14:52And so, you know, we could go on and on about in the federal case had only one defendant, Donald Trump, but he was also indicted in my case. So these defendants committed crimes in our state and other states. You know, and there's all this talk about political enemies. Not one of these defendants do I consider to be my political enemy. I'm sorry that they think of me as an enemy. I guess they don't know that their job is to serve me, to work for me, to make life better for me and my family. But they are not my political enemy. And I actually pray for them because I see issues. And also within Wisconsin, the quote unquote fake electors there actually got sued.
15:35And the discovery in that case was over 577 pages. Now, you didn't get to the discovery process in your particular case. But I'm just curious because we're talking about Mr. Scandalakis and his mate, how deep he got into your case. How voluminous was your case at the time it stopped? Huge. You know, much of this room, it could fill up, if not all of this room. It was huge. It was lots of witnesses that had to do. A lot of work was put into this because I always want to make sure that I am a fair DA. and that's why you see a grand jury recommending 39 people based on their conduct being indicted and me cutting it down to 19 because I'm only going to put forth those with the worst evidence who did the worst things but I'm also a fighter for victims and I was fighting for the victims in this case and the fact that you know to some prosecutors Ruby Freeman and her daughter have no value she has value to me and she should have value to other Americans because what happened to heard is horrible.
16:37And for someone to say they couldn't prosecute a defendant who came in a room and lied for the grand jury, I mean, a baby prosecutor could have prosecuted it. But, you know, that's neither here nor there.
16:50And lastly, where we're talking about billing being correct or things of that nature or critical mentions, does any of that change the impact, I think, what these co-conspirators were doing based on the indictment that the goal was, the ultimate goal was to overthrow the 2020 election. That was the ultimate goal. And we've had people that are supposed to be leaders that instead of being leaders are just cowering down. This country needs leaders, not cowards. I don't have anything else to share.
17:20Ben Meiselas:And here, funny, Willis goes back to that Macca Republican state senator and goes, look, sir, I've told you I don't trust you. I don't trust what you're saying. I don't trust the documents you're showing me. Here play this clip. The date that I have is January 24th of 2022. Does that seem like it's within the range of being the correct? Sir, I already stated I don't trust you. I understand you're trying to run for lieutenant governor right now. Anything you want me to testify to, I'm going to need to see. Okay. Were you aware that in between the time of the special grand jury being sworn in and receiving evidence, Mr.
17:53Wade traveled to Athens, Georgia to meet with officials from the White House Counsel's Office? I don't recall.
18:02On the right-hand side here is the meeting that I reference. The highlighted section reads, travel to Athens, conf with White House Counsel. How does this assist you in developing laws for Georgia? Because I believe the purpose that I'm here for is because you all need assistance in doing your job and you want assistance with rules and regulations around how people should be a prosecutor. And it made sense to me that you'd come to the best prosecutor in the state to ask for some advice. But I'm confused as to how this assists you in what the purpose of me being here is. The committee has a broad purpose.
18:38I'd be happy to refer to counsel as to the overall purpose of the committee. But my question for you is, as it relates, I don't think it's relevant. So I'm Objecting on relevance. She's asking and she's told you that the TUI process goes through the White House Council. She's asked. She's been asking that. And it's your testimony today that the travel to Athens conference with the White House Council, as far as you are aware, was due to a part of this TUI process that the governor is referencing. I've testified. I don't recall anything about this. Okay. And I don't see how it's relevant. to what your alleged purpose is.
19:18Now, your real purpose is to try to get elected, which I would say, Georgia, please let's elect any lieutenant governor, but this one.
19:25Ben Meiselas:There you have it, folks. I'm glad I could bring you that hearing because it was powerful and explosive. And, you know, we need we need more courageous people like Phony Willis out there. But you see how, though, the MAGA establishment tries to crush someone like that. And she's like, You think I'm scared of you at all? Love it. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million. Thanks for watching. Love this video? Support independent media and unlock exclusive content, ad-free videos, and custom emojis by becoming a paid member of our YouTube channel today. You can also gift memberships to others. Let's keep growing together.
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From the publisher
MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Georgia Senate Republicans getting a rude awakening as Fulton County DA Fani Willis turns the tables on them when they called her in for a hearing to try and cross-examine her.
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