Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis must withdraw from the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump or remove the special prosecutor with whom she was romantically involved, the judge overseeing the case ruled Friday. The case can then proceed.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee did not find Willis’ relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade constituted a conflict of interest and therefore should not disqualify her from the case. case qualifications. However, he said the allegations resulted in “inappropriate conduct” that infected the prosecution team.
“As the case progresses, a reasonable member of the public could easily wonder whether the financial transactions continued to provide some form of benefit to the district attorney or even whether the romantic relationship had resumed,” the judge wrote.
“In other words, an outsider could reasonably believe that the district attorney was not exercising independent professional judgment completely free from any prejudice. This unnecessary perception will persist as long as Wade continues to work on this case .”
A spokesman for Willis did not immediately respond to a text message seeking comment on the judge’s Friday ruling.
Willis hired Wade to lead a team that investigated and ultimately prosecuted Trump and 18 others accused of engaging in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally try to overturn Trump’s narrow 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia. ·Biden’s situation. Willis and Wade testified at the last hearing. Lawyers for Trump and some of his co-defendants deny that Willis improperly benefited, as they allege.
McAfee wrote that there was insufficient evidence that Willis had a personal interest in the prosecution. But he denounced what he called a “huge” error in judgment and the “unprofessional manner in which the district attorney testified.” Even so, he said dismissing the case was not an appropriate remedy to “sufficiently remove the financial cloud of the misconduct and potential dishonesty found here”.
McAfee found no evidence that the due process rights of Trump and the other defendants were violated or that the issues at issue prejudiced them in any way. He also said there is no need to disqualify constitutional officers, such as district attorneys, “when there are less severe and adequate remedial options.”
The judge said he believed “Georgia law does not permit a finding of an actual conflict simply because a wrong choice was made, even multiple times, and the trial court’s duty was limited to the relevant issues properly presented and the applicable law.” ”
Lawyers for co-defendant Michael Roman asked McAfee to dismiss the indictment and prevent Willis and Wade and their offices from continuing to prosecute the case. Attorney Ashleigh Merchant claimed Willis paid Wade large sums for his work and Wade then used his own earnings to pay for the pair’s vacations, benefiting improperly from the prosecution of the case .
Willis maintained that the relationship did not create a financial or personal conflict of interest that would justify removing her office from the case. Both she and Wade testified that their relationship began in the spring of 2022 and ended in the summer of 2023. They all said Willis either paid for it himself or reimbursed Wade’s travel expenses in cash.
The sprawling indictment accuses Trump and more than a dozen other defendants of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). The case uses statutes typically associated with gangs to accuse the former president, lawyers and other aides of engaging in “criminal activity” to stay in power after his loss to Biden in the 2020 election.
Trump, the Republican 2024 presidential candidate, has denied any wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty.
Earlier this week, a judge dismissed some of the charges against Trump.
The six challenged counts accuse the defendants of inciting public officials to violate their oaths. One of the charges stems from a January 2, 2021, phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, in which Trump urged Raffensperger to Ge “found 11,780 votes” for him to win the state.
Another charge that was dismissed accused Trump of encouraging then-Georgia House Speaker David Ralston to violate his oath of office by calling a special session of the Legislature to illegally appoint presidential electors.
McAfee said the count did not provide enough details about the nature of the breach.
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