Fani Willis Gets Angry When Asked About Reimbursing Special Prosecutor in Cash: ‘It Came from My Sweat and Tears .. What Are You Talking About?’

MERCHANT: “Did you direct-depositize him?”
WILLIS: “Yeah, Fulton County and the state of Georgia both paid me to direct-deposit.”
MERCHANT: “Okay. So the cash that you would pay him, you wouldn‘t get it out of the bank?
WILLIS: “I have money in my house.”
MERCHANT: “You have money in the house? So it was just money that was there?”
WILLIS: “When you meet my father, he is gonna tell you, as a woman, you should always have — which I don‘t have, so let‘s don‘t tell him that — should have at least six months in cash at your house at all time. Now, I don‘t know why this old black man feels like that, but he does. When we were growing up, my daddy had three safes in the house. So my father bought me a lockbox and I always keep cash in the house. Now, I don‘t do it to the degree that my father would do it, so he would probably be ashamed with me, but I always have cash at the house. That has been, I don‘t know, all my life. If you‘re a woman and you go on a date with a man, you better have $200 in your pocket, so that man acts up, you can go where you want to go. So I keep cash in my house and — I don‘t keep cash as good in my purse like I used to. I don’t go on many dates, but when you go on a date, you should have cash in your pocket.”
MERCHANT: “So my question was, where did that cash originally come from? If it hadn‘t came out of the bank.”
WILLIS: “Cash is fungible. I had cash for years in my house. So for me to tell you the source of when it comes from, when you go to Publix and you buy something, you get $50, you throw it in there. When it‘s been my whole life, when I took out a large amount of money on my first campaign, I kept some of the cash of that. Like, to tell you I just have cash in my house, I don‘t have as much today as I would normally have, but I‘m building back up now. You just put money in. It‘s a very good practice. I would advise it to all women.”
MERCHANT: “So you can’t identify when you came into this cash or where the cash came from?”
WILLIS: “I didn‘t say I couldn‘t identify it. Nobody gives me anything. I am sure that the source of the money is always the work, sweat and tears of me. What you asked me for is, when did the money go in there? What I am trying to tell you is — so, I got divorced in 2005 from my husband.”
MERCHANT: “And — “
WILLIS: “No, no, no, it’s important. You said, where did the money come from?I need to tell you where the money came from. So, for many, many years, I have kept money in my house. That money in my worst days has probably only been $500 or $1,000. At my best days, I probably had $15,000 in my house, cash. At all times, there‘s going to be cash in my house or wherever I‘m laying my head.”
MERCHANT: “The money that you paid Mr. Wade, the cash, in October of 2022, you do not know where that money came from?”
WILLIS: “I do know where it came from. It came from my sweat and tears.”
MERCHANT: “You know which job it came from? Did it come from Fulton County or did it come from a private job?”
WILLIS: “It came from — I’m not a — what are you talking about? So, it could have come from a private job, because before I was D.A., I was in private practice. So I earned money during that time period that’s probably in there.”
MERCHANT: “You don‘t know?”
WILLIS: “It could have — what do you mean I don‘t know where it came from? I absolutely — “
JUDGE: “I understand the situation. We can move on.”
MERCHANT: “Okay. Thanks.”