The judge overseeing the Georgia election interference case against former president Donald Trump and his allies rejected an effort to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) from the case over a romantic relationship she had with the lead prosecutor she appointed.
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In a 23-page ruling issued Friday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee wrote that defendants “failed to meet their burden” in proving Willis’s relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade was a “conflict of interest” enough to merit her removal from the case. But the judge also found an appearance of “impropriety” and said either Willis and her office must fully leave the case or Wade must withdraw from the proceeding.
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McAfee’s order is a significant legal victory for Willis, who maintains control of the historic criminal case against the former president and his allies that she began investigating more than three years ago. But the tawdry diversion has come at a personal and professional cost to Willis, as embarrassing details of her personal life and romantic relationships have come under scrutiny inside the same courtroom where she had hoped to put Trump and his co-defendants on trial this August.
“You think I’m on trial. These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020,” Willis declared during a fiery Feb. 15 appearance on the witness stand where she was questioned about the allegations. “I’m not on trial. No matter how hard you try to put me on trial.”
But even allies of Willis fear the case against Trump could be irreparably damaged, with Willis’s actions having undermined public confidence in the prosecution. And the tawdry claims against Willis are unlikely to go away — especially in the public realm where she has already faced political attacks from Trump and his supporters, racist criticism and threats from those opposed to her prosecution of the former president.
On Wednesday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed legislation creating a state panel to investigate and potentially punish “rogue” local prosecutors. While Kemp spoke of it as an attempt to combat violent crime, Republican lawmakers have already indicated they plan to investigate Willis. A separate Georgia Senate committee already has launched its own hearings into the allegations against Willis and Wade, the lead prosecutor, issuing a subpoena for records and hearing testimony from the lawyer who first raised the claims.
McAfee’s decision comes more than two months after Mike Roman, one of the former president’s co-defendants who worked on Trump’s 2020 campaign, claimed in a court filing that Willis and Wade had been involved in an “improper, clandestine personal relationship” that has financially benefited them both.
Roman’s lawyer, Ashleigh Merchant, claimed Willis may have broken the law by hiring Wade and then allowing him to pay for “vacations across the world” with her that were unrelated to their work on the case. Roman’s filing, which offered no proof to substantiate the claims, called for the prosecutors to be disqualified and for the charges against him to be dismissed.
Willis and Wade later acknowledged a romantic relationship in court filings but denied it had tainted the proceedings. Testifying under oath during an evidentiary hearing on Roman’s disqualification motion, both insisted the relationship began months after Wade’s November 2021 hiring and ended before indictments were issued last August. Both claimed they had not deliberately concealed the relationship but had not openly discussed it either.
“Our relationship wasn’t a secret. It was just private,” Wade testified.
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