Fani Willis and the Fulton County district attorney’s office can continue to prosecute Donald Trump and his Republican co-defendants as long as Willis’s former lover resigns, according to Judge Scott McAfee ruled Friday.
After the decision, Nathan Wade—now Willis’s ex—left the case. Judge McAfee said that this action solved the appearance of impropriety, but the court still believes that real justice requires Willis and the entire Fulton County D.A.’s office to be removed.
Judge McAfee wrote a 23-page opinion after a two-month spectacle started when defendant Michael Roman filed a motion to dismiss the charges brought against him by Willis. Willis had charged Roman, a Trump 2020 campaign official, along with former President Donald Trump and 17 other defendants in a 98-page indictment that included 41 different counts.
Roman’s motion sought dismissal of the charges, but the main point was whether the Fulton County D.A.’s office should prosecute the case. It was argued that Willis had financially benefitted from the prosecution by hiring her then-lover, Wade, to work on the case and taking expensive vacations with him. Roman and some co-defendants said this financial advantage created a conflict of interest that, by law, should disqualify the Fulton County D.A.’s office.
Judge McAfee concluded that “the Defendants failed to prove that the District Attorney had a conflict of interest in this case due to her personal relationship and travels with her lead prosecutor.”
The judge acknowledged that evidence of “financial enrichment and improper motivations” can create a conflict of interest requiring disqualification. However, McAfee decided that there was not enough evidence to show that any financial gain from Willis's relationship with Wade influenced her decision to bring the case to trial.
McAfee mentioned that Willis’s financial position—earning over $200,000 per year—and the fact that she and Wade “roughly divided evenly” travel expenses, as evidence that Willis did not benefit from the criminal case against Trump and his allies. The court also noted that Willis's efforts to quickly prosecute the case countered any argument that the financial benefit to Wade influenced the D.A.’s handling of the case. “[T]here is no indication the District Attorney is interested in delaying anything,” the court reasoned.
There are two fundamental flaws with this reasoning. First, McAfee disregarded that Willis could benefit personally without benefiting financially by giving her lover a county contract. This could give Willis a sense of control, help her curry favor, or provide a chance to spend more time with her lover.
Secondly, it’s not just the “delay” that would financially benefit Wade (and personally benefit Willis), as an increase in work on a shorter timeline would also add to Wade’s compensation. Judge McAfee overlooked two important facts that support a make-work theory.
To start, when Willis initially hired Wade on Nov. 1, 2021, as a special assistant D.A., the contract stated that “Wade was not to work more than 60 hours per month without written permission.” Then, in October 2022, Wade and Willis took what seems to be their first extended vacation together. They went to Miami and then to Aruba on a cruise.
The next month, on November 15, 2022, Willis renewed Wade’s contract, but seemingly removed the 60-hour per month limit. This change indicates that Wade could benefit even without the D.A. prolonging the case.
The extensive nearly 100-page indictment that included multiple counts, which a judge has already found to be legally deficient, also supports the claim that Willis allowed Wade to churn the case to bill more hours. ruled The fact that the indictment was legally deficient also supports the argument that Willis permitted Wade to churn the case to bill more hours.
But it wasn’t Judge McAfee’s failure to find an actual conflict of interest that was most troubling about Friday’s decision. Instead, it was McAfee’s conclusion that the relationship between Wade and Willis created an appearance of impropriety, which led to Wade’s removal from the case but not Willis's. His reasoning was unbelievable!
Allowing Wade to stay on the case could cause “reasonable members of the public” to “be left to wonder whether the financial exchanges have continued resulting in some form of benefit to the District Attorney, or even whether the romantic relationship resumed,” Judge McAfee explained. After all, “the District Attorney testified her relationship with Wade has only ‘cemented’ after these motions [to disqualify her] and “is stronger than ever.”
“An observer could reasonably think that the District Attorney is not exercising her independent professional judgment totally free of any compromising influence,” the Fulton County Superior Court judge thus concluded. One would think their physical relationship might have strengthened their bond more than some court filings.
Anyway, if an outsider could reasonably believe Willis was “not exercising her independent professional judgment totally free of any compromising influence” because she kept her ex-lover on the payroll, a member of the public could also reasonably believe Willis was not exercising her independent judgment when she and Wade were lovers. Similarly, if the removal of Wade was necessitated because reasonable members of the public might wonder if the affair and financial exchanges had resumed, removal of both would be required because the public knows such exchanges occurred during their affair, and it takes two to tango.
Furthermore, for the court to find Willis could remain, but not Wade, after concluding “an odor of mendacity remains” was nonsensical, because Judge McAfee found there were “reasonable questions about whether the District Attorney and her hand-selected lead SADA testified untruthfully about the timing of their relationship” (emphasis added). and If the judge thinks it's reasonable to question if the D.A. lied in court and under oath, then it's reasonable for the public to also question if Willis committed perjury. Allowing her to continue prosecuting under these circumstances is unacceptable.
But there is an even more important reason for Willis and the entire Fulton County D.A.’s office to be disqualified: Willis and the Fulton County D.A.’s office now have a personal interest in prosecuting the defendants who revealed Willis’s affair with Wade, and showed that they both might have lied, which embarrassed both Willis and her team of prosecutors.
BAs Judge McAfee stated in his Friday opinion, “Importantly, prosecutors are expected to assume a role beyond a mere advocate for one side and must make decisions in the public’s interest – not their own personal or political interest.” “Recognizing these are not empty slogans nor toothless admonitions without practical effect, Georgia courts have not hesitated to step in and use their inherent authority to disqualify a state prosecutor when required,” McAfee continued.
Anyone who saw Willis testify during McAfee’s evidentiary hearing knows that the D.A.’s focus will not be on the public interest, but on getting payback for what she saw as the defendants putting her on trial. Willis’s colleagues in the D.A.’s office went to great lengths to support Willis and Wade in fighting the accusations, making them only slightly less stained.
Judge McAfee may have thought partial measures could work, but his reasoning requires the disqualification of Willis and the Fulton County D.A.’s office.
Fani Willis and the Fulton County D.A.’s office now have a personal interest in prosecuting the defendants who revealed Willis’s affair with Wade.
