Trump lawyers say Fani Willis fomented ‘racial bias’ in Georgia election case – The Washington Post
Lawyers defending former president Donald Trump in the Georgia election interference case on Thursday accused Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) of making racially charged accusations against the defendants that could prejudice a future jury and asked a judge to disqualify her and dismiss the case.
The motion from lawyers Steve Sadow and Jennifer Little, filed in Fulton County Superior Court, comes more than two weeks after Trump’s co-defendant Mike Roman alleged in a court filing that Willis appointed Nathan Wade to serve as lead prosecutor in the case — and subsequently paid him more than $650,000 in hourly fees — while engaging in a romantic relationship with him.
Roman requested that Willis and Wade be disqualified from the case and that all charges against him be dropped. Nearly a week later, Willis offered her only public comments on the controversy to date in a 35-minute speech before the congregation at the Big Bethel AME Church, during which she broadly accused her critics of attacking her and Wade because they are Black. In her remarks at the historically Black church, framed as a talk with God to commemorate the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday, Willis questioned why Wade was targeted and not the two other private attorneys appointed as special prosecutors in the case, who are White. She did not mention Roman or any other defendants by name.
Willis’s comments, Trump’s lawyers wrote, “constitute a glaring, flagrant, and calculated effort to foment racial bias into this case by publicly denouncing the defendants for somehow daring to question her decision to hire a Black man (without also mentioning that she is alleged to have had a workplace affair with the same man) to be a special prosecutor. These assertions by the DA engender a great likelihood of substantial prejudice towards the defendants in the eyes of the public in general, and prospective jurors in Fulton County in particular.”
They also wrote that Willis’s remarks amount to a violation of Georgia’s rules of professional conduct, which state that the prosecutor in a criminal case shall “refrain from making extrajudicial comments that have a substantial likelihood of heightening public condemnation of the accused.” They noted that the maximum penalty for such a violation is disbarment.
They asked that Willis’s entire office be disqualified from the case and that the entire indictment be dismissed. A spokesman for the district attorney’s office declined to comment.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the election interference case, has scheduled a Feb. 15 evidentiary hearing on the accusations. Regardless of what he decides to do, the controversy has already upended the case.
The allegations against the prosecutors threaten to undermine public confidence in Willis’s prosecution of Trump and have inflamed grievances among those who believe that Trump has been unfairly targeted by partisan prosecutors and courts. Those who want Trump held accountable for his effort to reverse his 2020 defeat are scrambling to protect the case, but even in that camp, critics are emerging with deep concerns about the allegations.
Trump — who is accused of criminally conspiring to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia — has seized on the allegations against the prosecutors and is not likely to ease off his attacks. The former president has referred to Willis and Wade as “the lovebirds.” On Friday, after the release of Wade’s credit card statements showing he paid for airplane tickets for Willis, the former president accused the prosecutors of targeting him “to ENRICH themselves, and to live the Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous.” The scandal has dominated coverage on conservative-leaning media outlets.
State and local lawmakers are under increasing pressure to investigate the allegations themselves. On Thursday, state lawmakers in Atlanta were scheduled to take up a resolution to launch an investigation into Willis’s actions with a special new committee. Also Thursday, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission seeking a probe. Willis directly attacked Greene in her church speech.
A member of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners has indicated plans to investigate the potential misuse of county funds. On Wednesday, several speakers during the public comment session of a board meeting appeared to target Willis — including a White woman who wore sunglasses and a black bob wig and pulled a foot-long hot dog out of a package emblazoned with a hand-drawn logo similar to Nathan’s Famous hot dogs. “Nathan! Nathan! I can’t be without my Nathan!” she declared.
And more digging into Willis’s past is already underway. Last week, Georgia GOP Chairman Josh McKoon circulated a 2020 video of Willis saying she would fire any employee who sleeps with a co-worker and promising not to date people “that work under me.”
On Friday, records emerged in Wade’s divorce case showing he paid for at least two airline tickets for Willis to California and Aruba since he was hired in November 2021 to lead the Trump prosecution. It is unknown whether Willis paid him back. Wade is scheduled to testify in the divorce case next Wednesday.
McAfee, the judge overseeing the election interference case, has ordered Willis to respond to Roman’s claims in writing by Feb. 2. Ashleigh Merchant, an attorney for Roman, has indicated she plans to issue subpoenas for witnesses and documents to back up her client’s claims.
The subpoenas are expected to be filed in coming days. Willis, Wade and other staff at the district attorney’s office are among those likely to receive summons for the Feb. 15 hearing, as well as Wade’s current and former law partners, according to a person familiar with the subpoenas, who declined to be named because the documents are not yet public.
Willis has also been subpoenaed to testify in Wade’s divorce case, but the judge in that Cobb County case stayed that request until after Wade’s planned testimony.
The latest: Four of Trump’s co-defendants have pleaded guilty in the Georgia election case. Trump previously entered a plea of not guilty. The Washington Post published details of recorded statements given to prosecutors by the co-defendants who accepted plea deals in the case, offering previously undisclosed information about the effort by Trump and his allies to reverse his defeat.
The charges: Trump was charged with 13 counts, including violating the state’s racketeering act. Read the full text of the Georgia indictment. Here’s a breakdown of the charges against Trump and a list of everyone else who was charged in the Georgia case. Trump now faces 91 total charges in four criminal cases.
The case: Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) has been investigating whether Trump and his associates broke the law when they sought to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia. Here’s what happens next in the Georgia case.
Historic mug shot: Trump surrendered at the Fulton County Jail on charges that he illegally conspired to overturn his 2020 election loss. Authorities released his booking record — including his height and weight — and mug shot.