Fulton County district attorney is leading a sprawling case against the former president and his allies
The Georgia prosecutor leading a sprawling election interference case against Donald Trump has testified in court about allegations of misconduct levelled against her by the former president and his co-defendants – questions that could potentially disqualify them from the case.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis began her testimony in an Atlanta courtroom on Thursday after defence attorneys questioned lead prosecutor Nathan Wade about the timeline of their relationship and the expenses they shared.
The attorneys had already admitted to their relationship but firmly rejected the “meritless” and “salacious” allegations as “bad-faith” attempts to see her kicked off a case that Mr Trump has baselessly labelled a conspiracy against him, according to court filings.
Thursday’s hearing is scrutinising allegations that the former couple financially benefited from Ms Willis hiring Mr Wade to prosecute the former president’s case, which charges Mr Trump and more than a dozen co-defendants as part of a “criminal enterprise” to overturn the state’s election results in 2020.
“I’ve been very anxious to have this conversation with you today,” Ms Willis told defence attorney Ashleigh Merchant. “It’s ridiculous that you lied on Monday and yet here we are. … I’m actually surprised that the hearing continued. But since it did, here I am.”
The theory is this:
Wade was hired for the sole purpose of prosecuting Trump. Both he and Willis were (I could be wrong on the number here, but you get the idea) over $600,000 during their time in the investigation. This $600k was used to fund (among other things) a trip to Belize and other vacations, along with billing the GA DA’s office for expenses that occured during these trips that should have been personal. Had they not “gone after Trump”, they would not have earned the $600k they have been using to fund their affair.
He’s basically saying that the entire prosecution is just an elaborate scheme to fund and cover up a personal affair. Normally, this would and should be written off as irrelevant nonsense, but their testimony yesterday does show that they had an ongoing affair and played all sorts of shell games with money to cover it up. Trump very easily could walk away from the entire case on a technicality because Willis couldn’t keep her personal and professional life separate, couldn’t avoid the appearance of impropriety, and refuses to step aside because of her own hubris.
Why would this end the case and not result simply in replacing the prosecutors.
She’s the DA. The DA picks the prosecutors that go to trials for the state, and now she is at risk of being disqualified - and as a result the entirety of the DAs office from the case.
At minimum if that happens it is yet another delay to the case as they scramble for replacements, who will need time to review the case and may not have the same level of understanding as Willis and Wade who’ve spent many months working it so far.
Wouldn’t it just go to the next prosecutor? It’s not like all of the evidence of crimes has suddenly disappeared.
The problem is that whoever takes over the case might be sympathetic to Trump. This is Georgia after all.