Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is expected to face ongoing repercussions for her unsuccessful prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump, according to the attorney who filed the original motion to disqualify her, as reported by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“I would be shocked if she wasn’t investigated by the new Justice Department,” Ashleigh Merchant, who represented Trump co-defendant Mike Roman in Willis’ racketeering case, told the outlet.

Merchant filed the motion in January, accusing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis of financially benefiting from improperly appointing Nathan Wade, with whom she was romantically involved, as special prosecutor, the outlet reported.

The motion cited vacations Wade financed using money earned from his position. In March, Judge Scott McAfee ruled that the relationship created a “significant appearance of impropriety,” but allowed Willis to remain on the case if Wade stepped aside.

On Thursday, the Georgia Court of Appeals ruled that Willis must be disqualified from prosecuting the case against Trump.

“It’s kind of like Christmas came early,” Merchant said.

“We had to fight for a hearing. We had to fight for subpoenas. We had to fight for evidence. We had to fight to call witnesses,” Merchant said. “I mean, they fought every single step we took.” 

Shortly after Merchant filed the motion to disqualify her, Fani Willis publicly addressed the issue in a church, falsely claiming that all special prosecutors were paid the same hourly rate and implying that the criticisms were rooted in race.

However, contracts obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation revealed that Willis initially paid Nathan Wade a higher rate than other attorneys, including Georgia’s leading racketeering expert.

Despite Nathan Wade covering plane tickets and other expenses for vacations he took with Fani Willis, she did not disclose any gifts from him on her 2022 financial disclosure, according to the outlet. The pair claimed they split expenses roughly equally and that Willis reimbursed him in cash.

Willis’ credibility was called into question when she testified during an evidentiary hearing in February. Judge Scott McAfee noted there were “reasonable questions” about the honesty of her and Wade’s statements regarding the timing of their relationship.

In September, Fani Willis defied a subpoena from a state senate investigative committee and has refused to comply with document requests from the House Judiciary Committee.

Despite a court order in an open records lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, Willis has yet to produce documents related to her communications with Special Counsel Jack Smith and the House January 6 Committee.

“She’s trying to create this idea that she’s this constitutional officer and doesn’t have to play by any of the legal rules,” Merchant said. “And that’s not how it works.”