When Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis launched an investigation into Donald Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 election results in Georgia, it quickly turned into one of the most explosive legal battles in modern political history. What followed was several other legal ventures, courtroom drama, ethics accusations, and appeals, all of which cost the Peach State taxpayers. Just how much Georgia residents have already paid and may be still be on the hook for, however, is still in question.
Willis Pursues Trump – the Timeline
It all began in 2020, when Georgia became a contested battleground for the presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. There were concerns the ballots may not have been counted correctly. In 2021, Trump spoke with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and said he wanted officials to “find 11,780 votes,” which was one more than Biden’s margin of victory in The Peach State. This was the beginning of Willis and her pursuit of the commander-in-chief.
In February 2021, Willis formally launched a criminal investigation into what she said were attempts to overturn the Georgia election results. In January 2022, she sought a judge’s approval for a special purpose grand jury, saying many witnesses were not cooperating voluntarily. Midway through that year, several of Trump’s associates became targets of her investigation.
On August 14, 2023, Willis indicted Trump and 18 co-defendants under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), with prosecutors alleging the defendants participated in a coordinated effort to overturn Georgia’s election results. What followed were motions, appeals, and other legal procedures to fight the indictments.
And then Willis was taken to the mat for having a romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she had hired to help prosecute Trump. Defense attorneys argued their relationship was a conflict of interest and accused her of financially benefiting from his appointment through shared vacations and travels.
Later, the Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Willis from prosecuting the case, and in 2025, Pete Skandalakis took over. In November last year, prosecutors officially dropped all remaining charges against Trump.
After five years of legal battles and scandals, the citizens of Fulton County will now have to foot the bill for Willis’ determination – and failure – to take down Trump. But no one knows how much that will be.
The Untold Cost to Taxpayers
Fulton County officials have been facing pressure to disclose just how much the five-year prosecution will ultimately cost the taxpayers. According to The Center Square, Willis’ office refused to provide a complete accounting, even after the case collapsed.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rachel Krause ruled that Willis violated the state’s Open Records Act and ordered her to pay more than $54,000 in attorneys’ fees and litigation expenses. Another court ruling had her office pay more than $20,000 to Judicial Watch after the office falsely claimed it didn’t possess certain records related to communications with the January 6 Committee.
Furthermore, her office was ordered to pay attorneys’ fees in multiple disputes over records and transparency violations, and the prosecution is responsible for five years of fees for special prosecutors, grand juries, investigators, courtroom hearings, appeals, outside legal counsel, and security.
In 2025, Georgia lawmakers signed a law that allows defendants to seek repayment when prosecutors are removed from a case for improper conduct and the charges are then later dismissed. This allowed Trump, and his co-defendants, to seek repayment. In January this year, the president formally requested more than $6.2 million in attorney fees and legal costs from the county. Former Trump Attorney Jeffrey Clark sought more than $1 million. Taxpayers could end up shelling out nearly $17 million in defendants’ legal fees.
The Square reported that $1.2 million “in payments have gone to law firms of the three outside attorneys hired to assist Willis in the case – though how much of that was exclusively for work on the election interference case isn’t clear.” Although the outlet requested records detailing the costs, the DA’s office has yet to provide them, “instead pushing off the timeline to respond by months.”
Danny Porter, the former district attorney for neighboring Gwinnett County told The Square, “There is somebody in some department in Fulton County that could figure out the DA’s cost for that prosecution. Whether there’s anybody sitting around in that office with that figure in their head is another matter.”
And then there’s Nathan Wade. Willis’ reported love interest allegedly received more than $650,000 by the time he resigned from the case.
When all is said and done, legal analysts noted that the Georgia RICO case became one of the most expensive prosecutions in the state’s history.
"It would be very embarrassing for the DA’s office to disclose how much time, resources and effort were spent on this case that amounted to essentially nothing," Defense Attorney Manny Arora told The Square. "The taxpayers have a right to know." His client, Kenneth Chesebro, pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents.
Meanwhile, the District Attorney’s Office annual budget has grown from $26.3 million in 2021 to $39.4 million in 2026, with taxpayers still unsure how much the five-year failed attempt against Trump has cost them.
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