(New York) What was she thinking?
Like many observers of the American legal scene, Anthony Michael Kreis asks this question about Fani Willis, Fulton County prosecutor, who indicted Donald Trump and 18 other people for trying to reverse the result of the presidential election of 2020 in Georgia.
“If it were any other cause, no one would bat an eyelid,” says the Georgia State University law professor.
But it’s not just any cause. This includes the most important case of the career of Fani Willis, whose decision to hire an alleged lover as a special prosecutor is now being treated as a scandal.
It is also one of the criminal cases most likely to lead to a guilty verdict against Donald Trump, who faces three others.
“In these circumstances, you might expect a person to be a little more aware of what they are doing and how it might be perceived,” says Professor Kreis. I certainly think it’s a misstep, if it’s true, but we have to wait for what she has to say. »
Derail the trial?
Named among the finalists for the magazine’s 2023 Personality of the Year Time, Fani Willis has been in the hot seat since January 8. That day, Michael Roman, one of Donald Trump’s co-defendants, filed a motion accusing the prosecutor of having a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, whose services she secured on 1er November 2021 to assist him as special prosecutor in the case targeting the former president and his alleged accomplices.
The motion alleges that Nathan Wade used some of the money he earned from his work – more than $650,000 – to pay for a vacation with Fani Willis. She claims the two violated federal laws and conflict of interest rules. And she calls for the disqualification of Fulton County’s team of prosecutors.
Last Thursday, Donald Trump joined this request which would derail his trial if accepted.
“This case is a FRAUD, just like the prosecutor Fani Willis and her “LOVER”,” he protested on Truth Social on January 20.
Michael Roman’s petition, it should be noted, contained no evidence supporting his allegations. However, a few days later, bank statements were made public as part of divorce proceedings between Nathan Wade and his wife. Records indicate Wade paid for plane tickets for himself and Willis for a trip to California in 2023 and another to Miami in 2022.
And then after ?
“To the extent that this is a legal issue that requires the Fulton County Prosecutor’s Office to be disqualified, it’s not a problem,” responds Anthony Michael Kreis, expressing the consensus of legal scholars on the issue. .
“But, politically speaking, it looks bad. »
Especially since Fani Willis defied all the rules of crisis public relations by refusing to explain her alleged affair with Nathan Wade. After receiving Michael Roman’s request, the judge in charge of the trial of Donald Trump and others gave the prosecutor until February 2 to present her version of the facts in writing. He will hear both sides on February 15.
“Racial factor”
In the meantime, Fani Willis made do with vague allusions during an intervention in a black church in Atlanta on January 14. She notably accused her critics of exploiting the “racial factor”.
“I have appointed three special prosecutors. It’s my right. I paid them all the same hourly rate,” said the prosecutor.
They only attacked one. I hired a white woman: a good personal friend and a great lawyer, a superstar. I hired a white man: brilliant, my friend, and a great lawyer. And I hired a black man, another superstar, a great friend and a great lawyer.
Fani Willis, Fulton County Prosecutor
In fact, not everyone agrees on the skills of Nathan Wade, a former municipal judge whose practice of private or public law never led him to plead major cases. However, as special prosecutor, he would have played a key role in the negotiations which led to the guilty pleas of four of Donald Trump’s co-defendants, including lawyers Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis.
But the appearance of a conflict of interest is indeed a political problem, if not a legal problem. And Donald Trump’s Republican allies, in Georgia and Washington, are exploiting it to attack the procedure targeting the former president.
“As the details surface, it becomes increasingly clear that this is a pursuit for personal gain,” a Republican elected official said Friday during a debate that led to the creation of a special Georgia Senate committee to investigate Fani Willis.
A Democratic senator replied: “Where was the special committee when the ex-president [Trump] called the Secretary of State and said, “Find me 11,000 votes”? »
Legal experts have argued that the resignation of Nathan Wade or Fani Willis could help defuse the scandal, if it is a scandal at all.
Anthony Michael Kreis predicts that the trial will not be affected by this case.
“People have short memories. Unless there’s some incredibly damaging evidence that we don’t know about, I really don’t think we’ll still be talking about this a month from now. »
We bet that Donald Trump will try to make him lie.