LOS ANGELES.–Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, 53, vowed she would bring 77-year-old former President Donald Trump’s racketeering case to trial, after 34-year Judge Scoot McAfee removed chief prosecutor Nathan Wade from the case March 15. McAfee actually gave Willis a choice, either remove herself or Wade, but both could not continue prosecuting the case against Trump and his 18 co-defendants. Willis has become a kind of woke folk hero on the left of prosecutors seeking to take down Trump before the Nov. 5 presidential election. McAfee gave Trump’s legal team the right to appeal his March 15 ruling removing either Willis or Wade from the case. Willis and Wade were exposed for having an affair during the time they prosecuted the Trump racketeering case, making a mockery of the rule of law, certainly Fulton County’s criminal justice system.
McAfee granted Trump the right to appeal to Georgia’s Court of Appeals his decision to leave Willis on the racketeering case. McAfee’s March 15 ruling required Willis to fire Wade because of perceived conflicts-of-interest but, any Appeals Court reviewing the case, knows that Willis is even more culpable of conflicts-of-interest for her decision, as Fulton County District Attorney, to engage in an affair with her lead prosecutor. McAfee reviewed all the statutes and couldn’t rule to exclude both prosecutors from the racketeering case against Trump. But, whatever McAfee’s legal reasoning, it’s clear the both Willis and Wade should be excluded from the case due to perceived conflicts-of-interest. Georgia’s Court of Appeals agreed to hear the case, removing the case from the political hubbub that surrounds the case, especially after Willis and Wade’s affair was fully exposed.
When it comes to the rabidly anti-Trump Democrat-controlled media, it’s clear that Willis has taken on folk hero status for her dogged prosecution of the former president. “Nothing that you do will derail the efforts of my staff and I to bring the election interference prosecution to that so that a just of Fulton County citizens can determine the guilt or innocence of the defendants,” Willis wrote in a letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). Jordan subpoenaed Willis to release documents related to her use of federal funds for at-risk youth. Jordan’s office says that Willis has not responded to his House subpoena and would move for a contempt citation if he doesn’t receive the requested documents. Willis has the whole anti-Trump establishment behind her, proceeding with her racketeering case against the former president.
Weeks of intense testimony against Willis and Wade exposed what looked like a cover-up of her affair with Wade, with both parties refuting the time-line of when the affair began, suggesting that it began before Willis appointed Wade as lead prosecutor. Whatever the discrepancies in facts, it was clear to all, including McAfee, that enough appearance of conflict-of-interest took place to remove either Willis or McAfee from the case. Willis now uses her hostile dialogue with Trump apologist Jim Jordan to play to her anti-Trump base. “That demand is unreasonable and uncustomary and would require this government office to divert resources from our primary purpose of prosecuting crime,” Willis wrote Jordan, winning applause from the anti-Trump broadcast and print media. Willis acts like she’s entitled as DA to go after Trump, regardless of her past conduct.
Georgia’s Appeals Court will decide whether in the service of impartial justice, Willis should be removed from the case. Her ongoing battle in the press with Jordan only adds to her iconic status pf pursuing Trump with a vengeance, much like Special Counsel Jack Smith who’s promised, like Willis, to bring the former president to justice. Yet like former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Democrats place all their faith in prosecutors determined to get Trump. When Mueller issued in final report March 23, 2019, clearing Trump of any wrongdoing, Democrats and the press went wild with disappointment. Willis and Smith face the same pressure to go after Trump, whether it’s legal or not, to stop his 2024 presidential campaign. Georgia’s Appeals Court should decide whether it’s appropriate for Willis, with her already compromised history with Wade, to continue with the racketeering case.
Willis ongoing dialogue with Jordan, rejecting his pressure to comply with a subpoena, wins her plaudits in anti-Trump circles. Any Appeals Court ruling on the facts would have to remove Willis from the case, pulling the rug out from underneath the anti-Trump broadcast and print media, desperate to stop his 2024 presidential run. Facing his hush money trial in Manhattan, Trump wades into a legal minefield that could at anytime end his presidential bid. Willis hoped to play her part in the anti-Trump horde that works day-and-night to derail his 2024 presidential campaign. All of Willis testimony raises serious doubts in McAfee’s court about her credibility should be plenty of evidence to remove her from the racketeering case against Trump and 18 other defendants. Willis has the full backing of the anti-Trump press but she has legal ethics working against her.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
