By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on March 15, 2024
Fulton County, Georgia Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled today that District Attorney Fani T. Willis can continue to prosecute the 2020 election interference case against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his co-defendants if special prosecutor Nathan Wade is removed from the case.
McAfee was highly critical of District Attorney Fani Willis and prosecutor Nathan Wade’s relationship, describing it as being the result of “bad choices.” He also described Willis’ fiery testimony last month during one of the hearings over whether to disqualify her as “unprofessional.”
McAfee said special prosecutor Nathan Wade must step aside if District Attorney Fani Willis remains on the case in order to dispel the “cloud of impropriety” created by their romantic relationship.
McAfee also rebuked Wade for what he said was a "patently unpersuasive explanation for the inaccurate interrogatories" the special prosecutor submitted in divorce proceedings, which the judge said indicated a willingness to "wrongly conceal" his relationship with Willis.
"An outsider could reasonably think that the district attorney is not exercising her independent professional judgment totally free of any compromising influences. As long as Wade remains on the case, this unnecessary perception will persist," McAfee wrote.
McAfee found that while he was not able to "conclusively establish" when Wade and Willis' relationship turned romantic, "an odor of mendacity remains." Defense lawyers argued the romantic relationship predated Wade's hiring, and the timeline emerged as a key issue during evidentiary hearings last month.
"Reasonable questions about whether the District Attorney and her hand-selected lead SADA [Nathan Wade] testified untruthfully about the timing of their relationship further underpin the finding of an appearance of impropriety and the need to make proportional efforts to cure it," McAfee wrote.
All of the legal wrangling in this case about Willis' conduct as a prosecutor may be an exercise in futility, as the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to grant Donald Trump presidential immunity for any and all criminal acts he may have committed while serving as president. The Court's ruling on the immunity issue is expected in June. All of the criminal acts alleged in the Georgia indictment occurred while Trump was a sitting president.