Judge to consider whether to remove District Attorney Fani Willis from Georgia election case

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://apnews.com/article/fani-willis-nathan-wade-trump-election-
indictment-33644e0501987d5a98938377f209cb47

ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia judge who is deciding whether to toss Fulton
County District Attorney Fani Willis off of her election interference case
against former President Donald Trump has set a hearing for Thursday that
is expected to focus on details of Willis’ personal relationship with a
special prosecutor she hired.

As soon as allegations of an inappropriate romantic relationship between
Willis and attorney Nathan Wade surfaced last month, speculation about the
future of the case began to swirl. Even if the prosecution isn’t derailed,
the upheaval has certainly created an unwanted distraction for Willis and
her team and could undermine public confidence in the validity of the
case.

The defense attorney who first exposed the relationship says it creates a
conflict of interest and is asking the judge to toss out the indictment
and to prohibit Willis, Wade and their offices from further involvement in
the case. In a response filed earlier this month, Willis acknowledged a
“personal relationship” but said it has no bearing on the serious criminal
charges she’s pursuing and asked the judge to dismiss the motions seeking
her disqualification without a hearing.

The law says “disqualification can occur if evidence is produced
demonstrating an actual conflict or the appearance of one,” Fulton County
Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said during a hearing Monday. Because he
believes “it’s possible that the facts alleged by the defendant could
result in a disqualification, I think an evidentiary hearing must occur to
establish the record on those core allegations.”

The highly anticipated hearing, like all courtroom proceedings in the
case, will be streamed live on the judge’s YouTube channel, as well as by
news outlets.

As he makes another run for the White House, the former president has
exploited the revelation of the relationship, repeatedly referring to Wade
as Willis’ “lover” or “boyfriend” in an attempt to cast doubt on Willis’
motivations and the legitimacy of the case. Other Republicans have piled
on, using the claims to justify calls for investigations into or sanctions
against Willis, an elected Democrat who’s up for reelection this year.

The original motion was filed by former Trump campaign staffer and onetime
White House aide Michael Roman, but Trump and several other co-defendants
have joined with motions of their own.

Roman’s motion says that Willis and Wade were romantically involved when
she hired him in November 2021 to manage an investigation into whether
Trump and others committed any crimes as they tried to overturn his 2020
election loss in Georgia. That investigation led to the indictment in
August of Trump and 18 others who are accused of participating in a
sprawling illegal scheme to keep Trump in office.

Four of the people charged have already pleaded guilty after reaching
deals with prosecutors. Trump and the remaining 14 have all pleaded not
guilty.

Willis has paid Wade more than $650,000 for his work and then profited
personally when Wade used that money to take her on expensive vacations,
including cruises in the Bahamas and trips to Aruba, Belize and Napa
Valley, Roman alleges. His filing also questions Wade’s qualifications for
the job, saying there’s no evidence he had ever prosecuted a felony or
handled a racketeering case.

Just under a week after Roman’s motion was filed, Willis used a speech at
a historic Black church in Atlanta to forcefully defend Wade’s
qualifications and her own decision to hire him. She didn’t address the
allegations of a relationship in that speech, waiting nearly three more
weeks to acknowledge a “personal relationship” in a court filing.

Attached to that filing was a sworn statement from Wade saying that the
pair only began that personal relationship in 2022, once he was already
working as a special prosecutor. His statement also said that travel
expenses for him and Willis were “roughly divided equally between us” and
that Willis “received no funds or personal financial gain” from his
position as a special prosecutor.

McAfee said Thursday’s hearing needs to explore “whether a relationship
existed, whether that relationship was romantic or non-romantic in nature,
when it formed and whether it continues.” Those questions are only
relevant, he said, “in combination with the question of the existence and
extent of any personal benefit conveyed as a result of the relationship.”

Roman’s attorney, Ashleigh Merchant, has subpoenaed Willis, Wade, seven
employees of the district attorney’s office and others, including Wade’s
former business partner, Terrence Bradley. Merchant told McAfee on Monday
that Bradley would testify that Willis and Wade’s romantic relationship
began before Wade was hired as special counsel and that they had stayed
together in homes where the county was paying for Willis to stay.

Willis sought to quash those subpoenas. She argued Roman’s attempts to
subpoena people in her office “suggests an eye toward public narrative as
opposed to legal remedy” and that anything Bradley knows is protected by
attorney-client privilege as he once served as Wade’s divorce attorney.
McAfee declined on Monday to quash those subpoenas, but agreed to revisit
that after Bradley testifies.

Aware of the personal nature of some of the details that could arise in
Thursday’s hearing, the judge said that if there’s anything that amounts
to “harassment or undue embarrassment,” he is “not going to feel inhibited
from stepping in, even without an objection from counsel, to move this
along and keep it focused on the issues at hand.”

McAfee also made clear that he does not believe arguments over Wade’s
qualifications are relevant, saying that as long as an attorney “has a
heartbeat and a bar card,” it is within the district attorney’s discretion
to hire him.


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We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.

Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.

No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.