(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Fani Willis Probably Failed Us [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-01-19 Full disclosure- I’ve always been skeptical of Fani Willis. Because she is going after Young Thug. I like Young Thug’s music. I don’t know if he’s a criminal tho, so take that with a grain of salt. The judge in the Fulton County RICO case against Trump has set an evidentiary hearing for February 15th. This hearing is to examine claims by Trump co-defendant Michael Roman that Willis engaged in an improper relationship with one of her prosecutors. In addition to having a secret relationship with Nathan Wade, the filing contains some pretty serious allegations: The filing claimed Willis personally profited from the contract. Wade was paid at least $653,000 and potentially as much as $1m for legal fees as one of the lead prosecutors on the Trump case, and the filing alleged Wade then paid for trips he took with Willis to Napa Valley and the Caribbean. I’m not a lawyer, but that’s bad. Furthermore I remember wondering- why is this investigation taking so long? The DoJ investigation included some pretty tricky questions about what laws could be applied and what constitutional defenses Trump might make. The phone call though, that was pretty straightforward. There’s a possible answer why it was taking so long and you’re not going to like it: But even if he were indisputably the best person possible for the role, he was paid $654,000, and Willis made choices throughout her prosecution that seem, in hindsight, calculated to require him. Take the special grand jury, for instance. In 2022, Fulton County announced that it would use a special grand jury whose purpose would not be to indict anyone, but instead to gather evidence. These kinds of grand juries are very common in federal practice, but quite rare in Georgia. And at the time this special grand jury was convened, it was already indisputable that Donald Trump had lied to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in the wake of the 2000 election, and sent Rudy Giuliani to lie to the state’s General Assembly, and encouraged fake electors to certify that they were real electors. In other words, the makings of a hard-to-challenge criminal conviction were already there. But instead, Wade was broadly used during those special grand jury proceedings, and he earned hundreds of thousands of dollars helping to conduct them. We now see the price of those delays, as Fulton County struggles to try the former president before the November election. Shorter- she was milking the investigation for money for Wade, who would then turn around and spend it on fancy vacations. Allegedly. Willis’ response was forceful but contained an interesting omission: "I appointed three special counselors. It's my right to do. Paid them all the same hourly rate," Willis said. "They only attack one. I hired one white woman: a good personal friend and great lawyer, a superstar, I tell you. I hired one white man: brilliant, my friend, and a great lawyer. And I hired one Black man, another superstar, a great friend, and a great lawyer." Willis never denied or directly addressed the allegations she and Wade had an inappropriate relationship. She continued to tout Wade's résumé, saying he was paid more than double when hired by a Republican in another county, and that he "served as a prosecutor, a criminal defense lawyer, special assistant attorney general." "Isn't it them playing the race card when they only question one?" she said. (My emphasis). This may well be a case of Republicans being racist. Or it may be a case of a corrupt cop weaponizing social justice language to get away with milking a case for dollars. We don’t know. … At this point you might be thinking—so what? She and Wade can be banging behind the scenes and it doesn’t actually affect the case. I initially thought the same. Because it doesn’t materially harm the defense. Sex does not produce evidence. But that’s disputable: Looking at Wade’s lack of relevant experience, the allegations, if assumed to be true, could lead someone to think that “the prosecutor is pursuing a case, and as a result of that case they are having their vacations paid for,” Fleischman said. That is what Roman, Trump and his co-defendants would like a judge to find. But one sticking point is whether this still unproved conflict is related to the outcome of the case. For a conflict to rise to the level of disqualification, the prosecutor must have “acquired a personal interest or stake in the defendant’s conviction,” according to a 2018 Georgia appeals court decision. That conflict must be “more than a theoretical or speculative conflict.” The allegations, then, must be proved and the presiding judge must see them as a conflict related to the outcome of the case. Willis found herself disqualified in a related case when she sought to subpoena Lt. Gov. Burt Jones about his role as a fake elector for Trump in 2020. A judge disqualified Willis from subpoenaing Jones after she held a fundraiser for Jones’ Democratic opponent in 2022. In his decision, the judge determined that Willis’ open endorsement of Jones’ opponent gave her a personal stake in the outcome of the case, as it could harm Jones’ campaign and aid his opponent. But the biggest problem isn’t that she and her might have been having an undisclosed relationship. The problem is that she’s wasting taxpayer dollars and grand jurors’ time. That’s not going to fly, and it shouldn’t. She can’t be allowed to keep doing this. So, if the allegations are true, the case is going to be taken away from her, whether by the state through that new law for removing rogue DAs, or by the judge. Or by some other entity. I am not a lawyer. … Now you’re probably wondering—what happens to the case then? It gets reassigned to a different DA’s office. They can choose to pursue it, or they can drop it. Either way, it could result in significant delays. There is no timetable for a replacement if Willis were disqualified. And though the process is meant to be quick, no replacement has yet been appointed to prosecute the Jones case a year and a half after Willis was disqualified from it. Yikes. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/1/19/2218305/-Fani-Willis-Probably-Failed-Us?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/