Fulton County officials say by law they don’t control Fani Willis’ spending in Trump case

ATLANTA (AP) — Leaders of Georgia’s Fulton County testified Friday before a special state Senate committee that they had no legal power to control District Attorney Fani Willis’ spending or her hiring of former special prosecutor Nathan Wade.

The Republican-led committee is probing Willis’ hiring of Wade to lead a team to investigate and ultimately prosecute Donald Trump and 18 others accused illegally trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Willis and Wade have acknowledged a romantic relationship with each other.

In one example of the kind of threats Willis has been receiving, federal officials announced that a California man was indicted on April 24 on charges of transmitting interstate threats against Willis. Ryan Buchanan, the U.S. attorney in Atlanta, said Marc Shultz, 66, of Chula Vista made threatening comments against Willis in the comment streams of two YouTube videos in October, pledging violence and murder including a statement that she “will be killed like a dog.”

Shultz’s indictment wasn’t available in online court records on Friday. Those records show Shultz appeared before a judge in San Diego on Thursday and was released on bail. A federal public defender representing Shultz didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment Friday. Buchanan said Shultz would be formally arraigned in Atlanta in June.

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