Fani Willis, the embattled District Attorney for Fulton County, Ga., appears to be fighting hard to stay on her case against former President Donald Trump. She recently filed a motion that reflects her unhinged desperation to prevent an appeals court from revisiting Judge Scott McAfee‘s ludicrous decision that permitted her to remain involved in the case as long as she fired her lover, Nathan Wade.
Of course, Wade didn’t have to be fired; he resigned almost immediately. However, Willis’s relationship wasn’t the only conflict at issue. Trump’s legal team cited a January speech by Willis as evidence of her alleged politicization of the case — which is arguably a far more serious issue than her relationship with Wade.
“While respecting the Court’s decision, we believe that the Court did not afford appropriate significance to the prosecutorial misconduct of Willis and Wade, including the financial benefits, testifying untruthfully about when their personal relationship began, as well as Willis’ extrajudicial MLK ‘church speech,’ where she played the race card and falsely accused the defendants and their counsel of racism,” Trump’s lawyer, Steve Sadow, said in a statement. “We will use all legal options available as we continue to fight to end this case, which should never have been brought in the first place.”
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Despite the ridiculous ruling, McAfee granted the certificate of immediate review that Trump and eight of his co-defendants requested. This allowed them to petition the Georgia Court of Appeals to consider the disqualification battle before trial commences.
“In its Order, the Court found that District Attorney Willis’ actions had created an appearance of impropriety and an ‘odor of mendacity’ that lingers in this case, as well as the continuing possibility that ‘an outsider could reasonably think that District Attorney Willis is not exercising her independent professional judgment totally [sic] free of any compromising influences,’” the defendants’ motion read. “Despite this, the Court declined to disqualify District [Attorney] Willis, finding that eliminating only the Special Assistant District Attorney would cure the lingering appearance of impropriety.”
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But Willis on Monday asked the state’s Court of Appeals to throw out the request by Trump and his co-defendants, saying the attempt merely reflected the former president’s “dissatisfaction with the trial court’s proper application of well-established law to the facts.”
“There is simply no trial court error to be found in the decision to deny disqualification,” she wrote. Willis added the speech was “too vague, brief and limited in scope” to warrant disqualification.
“Days of evidence and testimony failed to disclose anything like a calculated pre-trial plan designed to prejudice the defendants or secure their convictions,” the district attorney added. “The applicants have not identified any public statement injecting the District Attorney’s personal belief as to the defendants’ guilt or appealing to the public weighing of evidence.”
The New York Times notes the court of appeals, which leans conservative, has until mid-May to decide whether it will take up the matter.
Willis has pledged to move forward with the prosecution despite the legal turmoil. Last month she told CNN prosecutors had never stopped their work, adding that she didn’t believe they had “slowed down at all.”
“I do think there are efforts to slow down this train,” she said. “But the train is coming.”
Willis is trying to put on a brave face, but her reputation has already been destroyed, and some believe it will be difficult for her to obtain a conviction. Willis is also the target of a congressional investigation over her alleged misuse of federal funds for “frivolous, unrelated expenses.”