(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The Problems with Fani Willis [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-02-21 I promise I’m not going to keep banging this drum forever, but I am writing this diary so that myself and my fellow Willis-detractors can be on the record about what we are actually saying, versus what people are claiming we’re saying. I’ve said before I have always been skeptical of Willis, on account of a few things. One- I’ve already said- her prosecution of Young Thug. This has been blown up into me being a big fan of Young Thug. This is not true, I know his style, but I couldn’t even tell you the name of one of his songs. Rather, I’ve seen multiple prosecutions of famous rappers, and they often seem like clout-chasing from the DAs pursuing them. It seems like it often involves taking claims in songs at face value (a dubious thing to do) and then making rappers seem worse than they are. But, again, I’m skeptical of her actions, not an outright hater. Two- I don’t trust cops. DAs are cops. Sorry, not sorry. Three- she talks to the press more than seems prudent. How often do you hear Jack Smith talking about his case in public? The goal here is to get Trump in prison, not burnish your reputation. But more important that any of these- I don’t like to defend behavior that I don’t approve of, even when convenient for our side. I have said the same about Al Franken, about John Edwards, about John Conyers, about my former mayor Bob Filner, you name the person, if they’re doing things they shouldn’t my answer is always the same- Fuck that guy. Bob Menedez can go to hell too. Am I saying Willis is on the same level? No, but I’m just saying I have been consistent in criticizing bad behavior. No matter what it means for the trial, Fani Willis made a mistake. I will not defend that mistake. So what am I saying? Willis messed up and defenses of her behavior are misplaced and often unrelated to the actual points people who are upset with her are making. Willis has no one else to blame for the problems it has caused for her. Willis may have made her position on the case problematic- she might be removed by the state or by voters. That’s it. Why do I think this? She said she wouldn’t date someone in her office I don’t bring this up as a gotcha. I bring it up because she agrees that dating people in the office is bad: "I will certainly not be choosing to date people that work under me," Willis said on the "The Patricia Crayton Show" in April 2020. "We are at a place in society where things happen in people’s relationships – husbands and wives sometimes, there are outside relationships. I don’t think that that’s what the community is concerned about. Although there might be a moral breaking in that," she continued. "I think that what citizens are really, really concerned about is if you chose to have inappropriate contact with employees," she continued. "There’s nothing I can say on it other than that it is distracting, it is certainly inappropriate for the No. 1 law officer in this state, and it really, really saddens me." This is exactly the claim that caused her to be in front of the court. When someone in power is dating someone who they can direct money to, the public has reason to be suspicious. It becomes hard to know whether they hired that person for cause and if their pay is fair. Or if someone more deserving might have got the job. What’s more- she was asked this question because her predecessor, Paul Howard Jr., was accused of sexual harassment by someone in his office. Women harass men too! So which Fani Willis are her defenders agreeing with? The one who claimed it’s a bad idea or the one who did that thing she said is a bad idea? Most of us would be fired for this behavior Don’t believe me? Try this. Go to your HR department with this hypothetical: I am dating a contractor for the company. They report to me and I determine their hours. They have taken me on trips. I swear I reimburse the contractor for those trips but I can’t provide receipts because I reimbursed them in cash and they made no record of it. See what they say. I’m betting on- this person would be fired and possibly sued. … The recent hearing, I think, went pretty well for her. Not because her defense was good. I would argue that it was unprofessional, because she had a duty to her constituents to answer questions about her behavior in a respectful manner. Willis claiming that Wade was not an employee, rather he was an “appointee”, was intelligence insulting. But the star witness for the defense, Terrence Bradley, did not confirm Ashleigh Merchant’s claim that the two were dating before Willis hired Wade. That probably ends the matter, unless the GA legislature or Fulton County voters decide to end her tenure. The cash issue was vexing. Fani Willis made the case that she used cash because her father told her so. And it’s supposedly a common thing for Black people to do. That’s all fine. The problem isn’t that she paid in cash. The problem is that when you pay in cash, you have no record of who paid for what and when. Because cash is untraceable. There’s probably already several doctorate theses about how practices and behaviors in minority communities are needed for life in those communities, but outside of those communities, they can cause problems. Willis’ insistence that she didn’t need any physical proof, just her word that reimbursed Wade, was imperious and insulting. Maybe you didn’t take it that way, but I did. ... There have been a lot of defenses of Willis’, and I have to say, most of them are bad. Let’s go through some. It wasn’t illegal according to Georgia Law I never said it was. It’s just bad behavior. It’s none of our business who she dates This would be true if she were dating someone outside of her office. When people at work date, it becomes the organization’s business. When there’s a power imbalance, it becomes the organization’s problem. It has nothing to do with the facts of the case This is true. But it’s kind of beside the point, right? Yes, all of the damning evidence against Trump will still exist, no matter what happens to Willis. The problem is for Willis. Let’s say, as a hypothetical, there’s a DA pursuing a case against a big-time drug dealer. This DA also has an Instagram account that suggests he’s living an exciting life. So this DA goes to the impound yard and takes selfies in the drug dealer’s impounded Lambo, then post them to Instagram. Is this illegal? I don’t know. Does it affect the case? No. Is it something DAs should do? No. That’s the issue here. Willis did something she shouldn't have done. It’s racist to dredge up her private life Look, I don’t like the optics of a bunch of old white men raking Willis over the coals about a relationship either. But like I said above, this is commonly prohibited behavior in large organizations for a reason. Willis had things to say about Paul Howard Jr., a Black man, for a reason. Racism is often expressed as separate standards for separate races. Expecting her to live up to the same standards that the rest of us do is not racist. The fact that she’s a black woman probably makes it more likely that this scandal will stick around longer than it would if she were a white man. That’s a fair point. But it doesn’t excuse her behavior. It doesn’t represent a conflict of interest because it doesn’t harm the defense True. It’s only a conflict of interest if someone can prove she was using the case to enrich herself. That so far hasn’t been. But this doesn’t make her behavior defensible. I use cash all the time No one was trying to have a discussion on the relative benefits of using cash vs. credit. Rather, one method is traceable, while the other isn’t. That makes her ability to prove that she reimbursed Wade much harder. Every other part of this discussion is a distraction. Lawyers on the defense team are dating too They’re not paid through public money, so this isn’t an issue for the public to adjudicate. But if they’re working at the same firm, I hope they’ve disclosed that to their firm, because the firm might not like this. … I think most of us who are upset about this know we’re swimming upstream, especially on this site. But I also don’t think it’s too much to ask for people to admit that it’s ok to be upset about her behavior. We want Trump in prison. That’s more important than defending one single D.A. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/2/21/2223936/-The-Problems-with-Fani-Willis?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&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/