Judge says prosecutor Fani Willis can stay on Trump case, must ditch deputy
Al Jazeera
Willis is prosecuting Trump election interference case in Georgia but faced questions about her relationship with a colleague.
A judge in Georgia has ruled that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis can remain on former President Donald Trump’s election interference case, but only if she removes a deputy she had a personal relationship with.
Questions about Willis’s relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade had threatened to delay — and possibly derail — one of the four separate criminal cases Trump currently faces in the United States.
However, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee found that the relationship with Wade did not amount to a conflict of interest that should disqualify her from the case.
Nevertheless, he said it created “an appearance of impropriety” that would negatively affect the prosecution team. He also called it a “tremendous” lapse in judgement.
He pointed to the fact that Willis’s office would have paid Wade for his work as special prosecutor, as is standard practice. While McAfee flatly dismissed the idea that Wade’s hiring was a “financial scheme” designed to “enrich” Willis, he explained that the public might perceive otherwise.
