Top prosecutors in Trump Georgia case under the microscope at high-stakes hearing

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D)’s relationship with top prosecutors in a 2020 election interference case involving former President Trump should lead to a judge ruling Thursday that she and her office should be disqualified from the case. The matter will be put under the microscope as it considers whether or not it is.

Willis and Special Counsel Nathan Wade acknowledged earlier this month that they had a “personal relationship” but insisted there was no conflict of interest in the massive extortion case involving 18 other defendants. Willis claimed they were just friends when he hired Wade to investigate Trump.

But defense attorneys argue that’s not true, and at Thursday’s hearing that could last until Friday, the state’s top prosecutor said Wade was already in a relationship and subsequently profited financially from their employment. He promises to have proof that he hired Mr.

The disagreement sets the stage for a major hearing in which Judge Scott McAfee will be forced to navigate the messy contours of prosecutors’ relationships while considering whether he crossed any ethical lines. Arrange.

“It’s just a strange place to be if all this legal analysis supports the definitions of ‘dating,’ ‘cheating,’ ‘situation,’ ‘relationship,’ ‘committed relationship,’ but that’s what we… “This seems to be the place to be,” says Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University.

The defendant in the case, Michael Roman, first surfaced the romance allegations against Willis and Wade in a court filing last month.

FILE – Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis files a lawsuit against Harrison Floyd, leader of the organization Black Voices for Trump, as part of the Georgia election prosecution in Atlanta on November 21, 2023. Appear at a hearing regarding the defendant. A Georgia judge deciding whether to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the election interference case against former President Donald Trump has set a hearing for Thursday, saying Willis and her It is expected to focus on details of his personal relationship with the special prosecutor he hired. (Dennis Byron/Hip-Hop Enquirer, via AP, File)

Mr. Roman, Mr. Trump and more than a dozen others are accused of participating in a criminal enterprise to overturn the results of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election in Mr. Trump’s favor. This is one of four criminal cases facing President Trump. He has pleaded not guilty to all 91 charges.

Roman, who was a 2020 Trump campaign operative, urged McAfee to remove the two prosecutors and the entire Fulton County District Attorney’s Office from the case and insisted that the charges against him be dropped. He argued that Willis’ relationship with Wade posed a “fatal flaw” in the indictment.

Roman’s attorney, Ashley Merchant, said Monday that Wade’s former law partner, Terrence Bradley, will testify that his relationship with prosecutors began before Wade was brought on the case. This is a direct contradiction between Wade’s sworn statement and the district attorney’s position in the court filing.

Merchant also said that Bradley personally listened to conversations that could have been impeachable if many of the district attorney’s office employees who filed the subpoenas claimed otherwise.

“I would be shocked if Ms. Merchant could stand by that statement. Shocked. I can’t believe it’s true,” Special Prosecutor Anna Cross told the judge. .

Evidence rules will apply at the hearing, which will pose a high hurdle for defense attorneys to prove their case, and prosecutors are likely to challenge the admissibility of Bradley’s testimony. said Kreis.

“They’re going to fight, what is hearsay?” What is bonus material? What requires guessing? What does he have a basis of actual knowledge for? Is he testifying to evidence that doesn’t have enough basis to go on the record? “It’s something that people who don’t have, don’t really think about,” he said.

Merchant subpoenaed the employees, Mr. Willis and Mr. Wade ahead of the hearing, but Mr. McAfee indicated that Mr. Bradley’s testimony would determine whether they took a stand.

“That first witness is really going to show us everything,” Kreis said. “Because either that sets the stage for bringing everyone else in, or the rest of the case falls apart and there’s no additional testimony because there’s so little evidence.”

More top articles from The Hill

Melissa Redmon, director of the Prosecuting Justice Program at the University of Georgia, said she will look at the chronology of Willis’ relationship with Wade in determining whether Wade’s contract with the district attorney’s office was entered into with the intent to benefit Willis. told The Hill.

“if [McAfee] “Mr. Redmon believes the defense’s argument that Ms. Wade was sentenced to benefit Prosecutor Willis, but that will, of course, factor into whether or not she should be disqualified.” he said. “But if it is shown that the relationship did not develop until after the contract was signed, then the reason to believe that that is why the contract was signed diminishes, or he may be less inclined to believe. not.”

Around the same time as Mr. Roman’s allegations, lawyers for Mr. Wade’s estranged wife filed a lawsuit in San Francisco under the names of Mr. Wade and Mr. Willis during the district attorney’s office investigation of Mr. Trump and his allies. He submitted a bank statement that appeared to include a flight ticket to Miami.

merchant later stated in a court filing The couple also vacationed in Aruba and Belize, and also took two cruises to the Bahamas.

Willis denies profiting from his relationship with Wade and says they split personal travel expenses “fairly evenly,” suggesting no financial sharing.

“To be absolutely clear, Special Counsel Wade’s personal relationship with District Attorney Willis has never involved any direct or indirect financial interest in District Attorney Willis.” prosecutors wrote in a filing earlier this month.

Redmon said McAfee must consider not only whether there was a conflict of interest, but also whether there were any indications of a conflict.

The judge said on Monday that it was “clear” that disqualification could occur if the evidence showed “an actual conflict of interest or an indication of a conflict” and that the allegations against Willis and Wade would be dismissed in the lawsuit. “This could lead to” exclusion from the program, he said.

“I think most people would say, ‘There’s actually no conflict of interest.’ But what does that look like?” Redmon said. “I still think it’s going to come back to the core question of, ‘Does it appear that the DA’s office is benefiting from this contract award?'”

The judge left open the possibility that Willis and Wade would testify, but warned that he would not hesitate to intervene if the defense sought to “harass or unduly embarrass” the prosecution.

McAfee said Monday that Wade’s qualifications as a prosecutor, which Trump and some co-defendants have questioned due to his lack of experience in handling complex criminal cases, will be discussed at the hearing. said it doesn’t matter. He also canceled the subpoena for Wade’s bank accounts.

“[McAfee’s] His job suited him perfectly in terms of keeping the ship tight, and he certainly showed he was going to do it,” Kreis said. “He has no intention of turning the courtroom into a circus. But at the same time, he wants to explore every honest means of argument and potential sources of legitimate evidence.”