After discovering that her office had violated Georgia’s Open Records Act, a judge ordered Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to turn over documents and pay more than $54,000 in attorneys’ fees.

Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign staffer, is one of the 18 individuals indicted in August 2023 alongside President Donald Trump on charges that they unlawfully attempted to overturn Trump’s 2020 election defeat in Georgia. Attorney Ashleigh Merchant is representing Roman. In January 2024, Merchant filed a lawsuit, claiming that the district attorney’s office had not provided the public records she had asked for.

The violations of the records law “were intentional, not done in good faith, and were substantially groundless and vexatious,” according to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rachel Krause. Krause determined that Merchant is entitled to attorneys’ fees and litigation expenses totaling slightly more than $54,000 because Willis and her office “lacked substantial justification” for noncompliance. Willis was instructed by Krause to locate and provide all records that were responsive to Merchant’s requests. After Friday’s order, the paperwork and money must be delivered within 30 days.

On Monday, a representative for Willis’ office stated that they intend to challenge the ruling.

After Willis’ office repeatedly failed to produce documents, Merchant said she finally filed the lawsuit.

“We had no intention of bringing a lawsuit,” she stated. “We truly had no choice because they were ignoring it, denying the existence of documents we knew existed, and opposing us at every turn.”

According to testimony, Merchant’s requests “were handled differently than other requests,” and Willis’ office was “openly hostile” to her, Krause wrote in her order. At a hearing, open records officer Dexter Bond stated that although it was standard procedure for him to call the requester if a request was unclear, he declined to speak with Merchant over the phone.

According to Krause, handling Merchant’s requests in this manner “indicates a lack of good faith.”

According to a court filing, among the documents Merchant requested were reports given to Willis’ office by businesses engaged “to track the impact of Willis’ statements to the media and whether such statements were viewed favorably by the public.” According to the document, Willis signed contracts with those businesses shortly before she and her office attempted to indict Roman, Trump, and other individuals.

Merchant also requested a list of the lawyers Willis had hired, as well as a copy of the confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement that district attorney’s office staff must sign.

In December, the Georgia Court of Appeals decided that Willis and her office could not pursue the case against Trump and others for election interference. The Georgia Supreme Court has not yet indicated whether it will take up the case, but Willis requested in January that the court review and overturn that decision.

Willis’s romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she had hired to spearhead the case, created a “appearance of impropriety” that served as the foundation for the intermediate appeals court’s decision. The relationship was first made public by Merchant in a shocking filing in January 2024, in which she claimed that the relationship created a conflict of interest that should disqualify Willis and her office from the case.

Using the state’s anti-racketeering law, a grand jury in Atlanta indicted Trump and eighteen other defendants in August 2023 on charges of engaging in a complex plot to unlawfully attempt to overturn Trump’s narrow defeat to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia in 2020. Trump allegedly called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to ask him to assist in obtaining enough votes to defeat Biden as part of the plot. Four have entered guilty pleas. Roman has entered a not guilty plea along with Trump and the other defendants.

It appears doubtful that Willis will be able to bring charges against Trump while he is still in office, even if the Georgia Supreme Court decides to hear the case and ultimately finds in her favor. Roman, however, is one of 14 defendants still facing charges in the case.