Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been granted permission by Judge Scott McAfee to continue prosecuting the Georgia 2020 election interference racketeering case involving former President Donald Trump and 14 co-defendants.
However, Willis must remove the special prosecutor with whom she had a romantic relationship.
According to a source, the district attorney’s office has been contacted for information on the next steps in the legal proceedings.
Following over two months of intense court proceedings, including impassioned testimony from Willis defending her relationship with Nathan Wade, the extensive conspiracy case against Trump and his associates from the 2020 election can now move forward, contingent upon Willis’ decision.
Despite providing closure to a tumultuous two-month diversion entangling the election subversion case in the personal lives of prosecutors, the ruling still casts a shadow on one of the four prosecution teams pursuing charges against the former president.
While Judge McAfee permitted Willis to remain involved in the case, the recent public hearings regarding the disqualification issue unveiled deeply personal details that may shape public perception, including that of potential jurors in Atlanta, regarding the prosecution’s trajectory.
McAfee heavily criticized Willis and Wade’s relationship, labeling it as stemming from “bad choices.”
“This finding is by no means an indication that the Court condones this tremendous lapse in judgment or the unprofessional manner of the District Attorney’s testimony during the evidentiary hearing,” McAfee wrote.
However, the judge wrote,
“Georgia law does not permit the finding of an actual conflict for simply making bad choices – even repeatedly.”
The judge characterized Willis’ passionate testimony last month during hearings on her potential disqualification as “unprofessional.”
Legal Validation: Judge’s Perspective On Cash Payments
McAfee stated that although Willis lacked documentation of payments she allegedly made to Wade for vacation travel expenses, her assertion of reimbursing him in cash “was not so incredible as to be inherently unbelievable.”
“Such a reimbursement practice may be unusual and the lack of any documentary corroboration understandably concerning. Yet the testimony withstood direct contradiction, was corroborated by other evidence,” McAfee said.
Willis, the judge noted, provided no ledger of her alleged payments to Wade “and the district attorney may well have received a net benefit of several hundred dollars.”
Despite this, McAfee said:
“The Defendants have not presented sufficient evidence indicating that the expenses were not ‘roughly divided evenly.’”
“In addition – and much more important – the Court finds, based largely on the District Attorney’s testimony,”
McAfee said, “that the evidence demonstrated that the financial gain flowing from her relationship with Wade was not a motivating factor on the part of the District Attorney to indict and prosecute this case.”
Initially, Ashleigh Merchant, attorney for Trump co-defendant Mike Roman, alleged that the relationship between Willis and Wade constituted a conflict of interest and accused them of dishonesty regarding its timeline.
Merchant asserted that financial documents uncovered during Wade’s divorce proceedings showed Willis benefited financially from lavish vacations Wade took her on after she hired him as special prosecutor in late 2021, coinciding with the intensification of the investigation into Trump and his associates. Willis refuted any impropriety in their relationship.
However, discrepancies regarding the timing of their romance emerged as a central issue that disrupted Willis’s prosecution of Trump and his associates, an investigation she launched shortly after assuming office in 2021.
During her testimony last month, Willis hinted at strained relations with Wade, revealing that he had made sexist remarks during their relationship, which seemed to tarnish her perception of him.
“I do not consider our relationship to have become romantic until early 2022,” Willis testified on February 15.
“It’s interesting that we’re here about this money. Mr. Wade is used to women that, as he told me one time: ‘The only thing a woman can do for him is make him a sandwich,’” Willis testified at one point.
“We would have brutal arguments about the fact that I am your equal,” she told the judge.
Willis’ Prosecution Of Trump
Upon assuming the DA position, Willis inherited a backlog of over 16,000 cases exacerbated by Covid-19 delays. Prioritizing what she deemed the paramount case, she focused her efforts on prosecuting Trump for his alleged attempts to manipulate the Georgia election in 2020.
Over three years, Willis conducted an investigation resulting in 19 indictments following an extensive special purpose grand jury process spanning almost six months.
In August 2023, Trump faced 13 counts upon being booked into Fulton County Jail, including racketeering, conspiracy charges, and solicitation of a public official to breach their oath of office.
The indictment accused Trump of unlawfully soliciting Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger during their infamous January 2, 2021, call to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.
With a total of 41 charges, the indictment encompassed Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and 40 additional charges stemming from key incidents post-2020 election.
Allegations ranged from false statements and solicitation of state officials to obstruction and breach of election equipment.
Specific crimes related to the breach of voting systems in Coffee County were also cited, with Trump allies accused of lying about their involvement.
Trump and 14 allies pleaded not guilty to all charges in the extensive racketeering case, with four defendants accepting plea deals in exchange for testimony.