ATLANTA (AP) — After more than a year of legal maneuvering, Fani Willis will face questions Wednesday from a Georgia state Senate committee over her prosecution of Donald Trump.

The question is whether Fulton County’s Democratic district attorney will answer any of them.

The Republican-dominated state Senate in January 2024 created the Special Committee on Investigation to examine allegations of misconduct against Willis concerning her case seeking criminal convictions for efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia. Even before Trump embarked on a retribution campaign against his enemies, Republicans on the Georgia committee were eager to bring Willis in for questioning.

When Willis announced the indictment against Trump and 18 others in August 2023, she used the state’s anti-racketeering law to allege a conspiracy to try to illegally overturn Trump’s narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

Republicans didn’t like that, but the committee has focused on Willis’ hiring of special prosecutor Nathan Wade to lead the election interference case. The resolution creating the committee said a romantic relationship between the two amounted to a “clear conflict of interest and a fraud upon the taxpayers.” But now the case is defunct after Willis was removed and another prosecutor dismissed it. Thus far, the committee has turned up few new facts regarding Willis’ activities. And she may choose to be guarded after Trump called Willis a “criminal” who should be “prosecuted” and “put in jail.”

Democrats have decried the panel as a partisan time-waster driven by political ambition. Four Republicans on the committee are running for statewide office in 2026. Chairman Bill Cowsert of Athens is running for attorney general, while Sens. Greg Dolezal of Cumming, Blake Tillery of Vidalia and Steve Gooch of Dahlonega are each seeking the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. Another Republican who had been on the committee, John Kennedy of Macon, resigned from the Senate last week to pursue his own bid for lieutenant governor.

Amid a court battle over the committee’s power to order her to appear, Willis didn’t show up last year when subpoenaed. A judge agreed that Willis couldn’t ignore the subpoena, and her lawyers worked out an agreement for Willis to appear when the subpoena was reissued this year.

But Roy Barnes, the former Democratic Georgia governor representing Willis, told state Supreme Court justices last week in a hearing over the validity of an earlier subpoena that there may be limits to what Willis will answer.

“You can’t just pick somebody out and say, ‘We’re going to embarrass you; we’re going to try you; we’re going to harass you,’” Barnes told justices. “So we’ll make an appropriate objection at the time. I’m not a potted plant.”

Willis’ prosecution began to fall apart in January 2024, when a defense attorney in the case alleged that Willis was involved in an improper romantic relationship with Wade.

In an extraordinary hearing, both Willis and Wade testified about the intimate details of their relationship. They both vehemently denied allegations that it constituted a conflict of interest.

The trial judge chided Willis for a “tremendous lapse in judgment,” ultimately ruling that Willis could remain on the case if Wade resigned, which he did hours later.

But after defense attorneys appealed, the Georgia Court of Appeals cited an “appearance of impropriety” and removed Willis from the case. The state Supreme Court in September declined to hear Willis’ appeal.

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ATLANTA — Georgia’s parole board on Monday put an execution scheduled for Wednesday on hold, but it was not clear how long that would last.

The order suspending the execution of Stacey Humphreys, signed by State Board of Pardons and Paroles Chair Joyette Holmes, does not provide any reason for the decision. The board also issued a notice saying a clemency hearing for Humphreys scheduled for Tuesday morning is “postponed until further notice.”

Humphreys, 52, was set to receive a lethal injection Wednesday evening at the state prison near Jackson. He was convicted of malice murder and other crimes in the 2003 killings of 33-year-old Cyndi Williams and 21-year-old Lori Brown.

Humphreys’ lawyers last week filed a petition asking a judge to order two members of the parole board to recuse themselves from considering his clemency petition, saying they had conflicts of interest.

They also asked the judge to order the parole board to halt the clemency proceedings for 90 days to give the governor time to appoint replacement board members and to order the governor to make those appointments. And they asked the judge to keep the parole board from hearing Humphreys’ clemency petition until the two board members have been replaced.

During a hearing Monday afternoon on that petition, a lawyer for the parole board said she did not know how long the suspension would last. The death warrant is valid through noon on Dec. 24, meaning that if the execution doesn’t happen by then the state will have to seek a new warrant.

Kimberly McCoy, one of the board members whose recusal Humphreys’ lawyers is seeking, was a victim advocate with the Cobb County district attorney’s office at the time of Humphreys’ trial and was assigned to work with the victims in the case. The other, Wayne Bennett, was the sheriff in Glynn County, where the trial was moved because of pretrial publicity, and Humphreys’ lawyers argue he oversaw security for the jurors and Humphreys himself during the case.

During the court hearing, it was established that McCoy had agreed Sunday night to abstain from voting on the matter of Humphreys’ clemency application. But it was not clear what that means, particularly whether or not she would be present and would participate during the discussion of the case.

When Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney asked what McCoy understands it to mean if she abstains, McCoy told the judge she would do whatever the court directs her to do. A lawyer for the board said her understanding of abstention is that McCoy could be present during the clemency hearing and could ask questions but would not vote.

Under questioning in court, Bennett testified that he did not believe his connection to Humphreys’ trial would have any bearing on his treatment of the case, that he would consider the evidence and take the appropriate actions. Generally, Bennett said, he was not directly involved in the day to day responsibilities of security for a trial or for the sequestered jurors, and that those duties fell to his staff.

Three members of the parole board must vote for clemency for it to be granted. Lawyers for Humphreys argue that he has a right to have his clemency application heard and voted on by a five-member parole board with no members who have conflicts.

Tina Piper, a lawyer for the state, argued that Humphreys has the right to have his application voted on by a quorum of three, not by five members. She also argued that the state Constitution says the parole board shall be made up of five members, so the governor can’t appoint a temporary member because then there would be six.

Noting that the parole board could lift the suspension at any time, Humphreys’ lawyers urged the judge to issue an order keeping the state from executing him until the judge has a chance to make a decision on the recusal of the parole board members and whether a member who isn’t voting should be temporarily replaced.

Williams and Brown worked as real estate agents in a sales office in a model home for a new subdivision in Powder Springs, a suburb about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Atlanta. Humphreys entered the sales office around midday on Nov. 3, 2003, and forced them to strip naked and give him their bank PINs before fatally shooting them, according to evidence presented at trial.

Humphreys withdrew more than $3,000 from the women’s bank accounts, according to court filings. He told police after his arrest that he had recently taken out some high-interest payday loans and needed money for a payment on his truck.