Judge Saves D.A. Willis From Herself — One More Time

This is her second strike. Will she go for a Third?

The Georgia Fulton County judge presiding over the sprawling election interference case against Donald Trump and eighteen co-defendants has finally ruled that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis may continue prosecuting this case — on one condition: Judge Scott McAfee ruled that either “special prosecutor” Nathan Wade, whose not-so-clandestine intimate relationship with Willis is the source for defendant Roman’s motion to dismiss the case, must remove himself from the case. Or…if she refuses to fire him, then Willis and her entire office must be — will be — removed and the case will then be transferred to another Fulton County prosecutor.

At the behest of D.A. Willis, a Fulton County grand jury charged Trump and his co-defendants last year in a sweeping indictment with attempting to rig Georgia’s 2020 presidential election. Earlier this week, Judge McAfee dismissed six of the charges; however, the most consequential counts, including those alleging violation of Georgia’s version of the federal government’s Racketeering Influence and Corruption (RICO) laws, remain.

For several weeks Judge McAfee and the entire planet watched and listened to the downright sordid and salacious details of Willis’ sexual relationship with Wade, including when, where, and even how they consummated that relationship. Willis had plucked Wade from relative obscurity and hired him as not just a “special prosecutor” but as the lead attorney just under her —pun very much intended.

Both Willis and Wade testified on their own behalves in defense of what may only be described as incredibly bad judgments. In his ruling, Judge McAfee cited that lapse in judgment but stopped short of declaring Willis’ relationship with Wade to be corrupt. It may have been improper, even unethical, but it did not reach the required standard for disqualification of a lawyer from this or any other case: clear and convincing evidence of a conflict of interest and/or clear and convincing evidence of corruption.

Judge McAfee scolded Willis for that lack of judgment. Again, he noted that the standard for disqualification included but was not limited to the “appearance” of conflict or corruption. Fani Willis’ behavior here, including her less than credible testimony, certainly appeared questionable if not altogether suspect. But actual corruption (the alleged sharing of taxpayer-funded salaries and fees between them for extensive and exotic vacations, dinners, and dates) was not proven by the moving attorneys. Impropriety and “bad” appearance…yes. Corruption? No.

Indeed, these two lawyers argued that while their relationship had always been discreet; they did not really “get busy” physically until 2022, well after after Willis had hired Wade.

Team Trump and the other defendants had claimed the two began “knocking pots” as early as 2019, even before the case against Trump and company had been charged, and thus Willis had improperly hired her lover before he became her co-worker.

It was co-defendant Michael Roman, through his attorneys, who brought the motion against Willis and Wade back in a January bombshell revelation. His legal team argued the Willis-Wade connection went far beyond mere sexual dalliances and dinner-dates. She purposely used Wade for her own personal financial gain. That is, their many forays into the high-life were subsidized by Georgia taxpayers: he would pay for dates, trips and meals with money that came from public funds. Those public funds (which amounted to well over $650,000), however, represented fees paid to Wade through Willis’ office. Roman’s lawyers argued that he was paid more than any of the other attorneys on Team Willis, and that, indeed, around the office and in Atlanta legal circles (and even throughout “greater” Atlanta), their supposedly “discreet” relationship was an open secret.

Willis attempted to refute this argument by claiming that she did not have receipts to prove her version of events because on the rare occasion when they did not go “Dutch Treat,” Wade paid for “things” with his law firm’s credit card, and then later she reimbursed him in cash up to her portion of the expenses. Sadly, Willis enlisted her father as a corroborating witness for this little, but explosive, tidbit. I have covered his testimony here.

Judge McAfee made it clear in his ruling that he did not believe a word of this testimony by Willis. Former Mueller Report and FBI legal adviser Andrew Weissmann put the judge’s attitude in more colloquial and colorful terms, declaring that Judge McAfee did not believe either Willis or Wade for even “a New York minute.”

Opinion

Thankfully, Judge McAfee did not kick Fani Willis and her team off this most important criminal case in US history. Had he done so, the case against Trump and company would have very likely collapsed completely. A whole new team would have required months of review and preparation to take this thing over and get “up to speed.” By that time, anything could have and probably would have happened — including another presidential election in which Trump could somehow finnagle his way back into office. I do not believe he has even the slightest chance of winning a “popular” election. But the antiquated, slave-era Electoral College is another matter entirely.

Obviously, Willis will remove her ex-lover from this matter rather than risk having the judge remove her. That’s an easy choice for her now. However, it’s a choice that never should have had to be made in the first place.

After this scandal first broke, for weeks and weeks this woman remained silent and let the gossip-mongers and urgent whisperers reign. Then, rather than come clean and fall on her sword at a full-blown news conference and fully explain herself, she popped up at an historic Atlanta black Baptist Church. There, she pleaded her case to an adoring and sympathetic congregation and to God Himself.

On the witness stand, yes, she was “feisty,” self-assured, self-confident, and strong-willed; but mostly she was indignant and determined to salvage her now supremely sullied name and reputation. Hell, she even ridiculed the defendants’ attorneys by accusing them of trying to flip the script by putting her on trial rather than their clients.

But, as attorney Weissmann says in the above video clip, the judge believed little if anything she said…and, frankly, neither did most legal eagles watching this charade and judging the depth of this legal morass.

If Fani Willis really and truly wished to purge herself of these allegations, she should have and could have rid herself of Nathan Wade the day after their affair, tryst…whatever… became public. That would have demonstrated some modicum of good faith to this judge and the country, rather than him having to weigh whether or not the district attorney for the county — the district attorney, mind you — was, in fact, committing perjury in his courtroom and right to his face.

And now? Again, as attorney Weissmann says, now would be a good time for Fani Willis to voluntarily recuse herself from this matter. Why now? Because she has obviously lost all credibility with this judge; and the defendants have already vowed to appeal his decision to keep her on the case. And they have a good chance of being successful in such an appeal.

Also, there are a number of state and local bar and legal associations looking at this woman’s behavior, not to mention the rabid Trump Republicans in Congress.

Thus, she should do herself and all of us a favor: recuse.

But we also know that she will do no such thing.

And so, per Judge McAfee, Fani Willis will stay on this case. This is her second strike. (See my piece describing her first strike here). Given her track record so far in this case, I’m betting that there will be a third strike, and that unless someone intervenes, she will blow this best chance to get a criminal conviction against Donald Trump and finally put him where he belongs — behind bars.