"Fani Willis disqualified from Trump's Georgia election interference case."

 Axios reports.

"Ousted Trump prosecutor Nathan Wade shocks guests with appearance at ex-lover Fani Willis’ primary election victory party."

The NY Post reports.

The 52-year-old prosecutor’s victory over attorney and author Christian Wise Smith comes as she faces multiple investigations launched by state and federal lawmakers over her alleged misuse of taxpayer money and relationship with Wade.

“We can’t keep turning a blind eye to what’s going on in that office,” Wise Smith argued on the campaign trail Monday. “Chaos. Corruption. It’s time for us in Fulton County to stand up and take our justice system back”....

"Judge Says Fani Willis Can Stay on Trump Case, but Only if Former Romantic Partner Leaves."

The NYT reports. 

The ruling by Judge Scott McAfee of Fulton Superior Court cut a middle path between removing Ms. Willis for a conflict of interest, which defense lawyers had sought, and her full vindication, with the judge sharply criticizing her behavior....

Judge McAfee said that no “disqualification of a constitutional officer necessary when a less drastic and sufficiently remedial option is available.”... Either “the District Attorney may choose to step aside, along with the whole of her office” or “Wade can withdraw” allowing the case to proceed without further distraction....

Mr. Trump and his co-defendants could appeal the judge’s ruling, as could Ms. Willis, further delaying the proceedings and leaving the matter unresolved indefinitely. ...

ADDED: Here's the text of the opinion.

"They are coming after us. You don't need to talk to them about anything about us."

Fani Willis allegedly said to Terrence Bradley, quoted in this tweet from Jonathan Turley.

"The legal arguments of Mr. Trump and his allies were advanced by a lineup of veteran defense lawyers who seemed quite at ease..."

"... while [Adam Abbate, a prosecutor in District Attorney Fani Willis’s office] had a more halting, and at times fumbling, presentation, relying more on his recitation of precedent and case law. Regardless, Judge McAfee will be more interested in the substance of the legal questions, rather than the delivery style. He said after the arguments that he would rule within two weeks...."

From "Trump Lawyer Argues ‘Appearance of Impropriety’ Is Enough to Disqualify Prosecutor/Lawyers argued about whether the prosecutor Fani Willis has an untenable conflict of interest in the Georgia election case; her side called the disqualification effort 'desperate'" (NYT).

The Trump side argued both that appearance of impropriety is enough, but it also argued that it had proven actual grounds for disqualification — 6 of them.

C-Span video of the arguments: Part 1, Part 2.

"If Ms. Willis is disqualified from the case, her entire office would be, too, and the case would probably be turned over to a district attorney from another jurisdiction."

"The new prosecutor could choose to continue the case as planned, modify the charges or drop them.... There is already some precedent within the Trump case for disqualification. In July 2022, a judge blocked Ms. Willis from developing a case against Burt Jones, a fake Trump elector in Georgia in 2020, because Ms. Willis had hosted a fund-raiser for one of Mr. Jones’s political rivals. A year and a half after the disqualification, no replacement prosecutor has yet been named to continue investigating Mr. Jones, who is now Georgia’s lieutenant governor. Pete Skandalakis, the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, said in a recent interview that the current situation was different from the one involving Mr. Jones and suggested that it could move more quickly because an indictment has already been handed up...."

From "Prosecution of Trump in Georgia Hangs in Balance at Hearing/Lawyers will sum up their arguments on Friday about whether Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, has a conflict of interest and should be disqualified" (NYT).

The arguments begin at 1 Eastern Time.

ADDED: Watch live:

"The Bradley testimony was grinding but telling.... Repeating 'I speculated' was an inartful and unconvincing evasion."

"What remains is his text, which was sent before he was under all of this coercive pressure. What is clear is that the county attorneys were clearly wrong in accusing opposing counsel of filing a baseless and unethical motion. There was obviously a good-faith basis to have raised the allegation. The question remains how the judge uses his record on the issue of disqualification. Once again, I fail to understand why these two prosecutors have not removed themselves, particularly Wade. These are hits below the waterline. I do not see how this is helping them, let alone their case or their office."

Tweets Jonathan Turley.

"Terrence Bradley, Nathan Wade’s former law partner and divorce lawyer, is claiming something quite extraordinary in court this afternoon..."

".... that he has no direct knowledge of when Wade’s relationship with Fani T. Willis began. Since he was the primary source for the defense lawyer seeking to remove Willis from the case, the key question going forward will be whether Judge Scott McAfee believes him. But if he doesn’t, that could cut two ways. If Bradley is an unreliable witness, then his prior statements claiming knowledge that the romance began before Willis hired Wade could be seen as just as unreliable as what he is saying in court today. Remember, the burden is on the defense to prove that Willis faced a conflict of interest when she hired Wade because they were already dating. And it’s also their burden to prove that either Willis or Wade lied on the stand two weeks ago."

From "‘Star witness’ says he can’t remember details of Wade-Willis relationship in Trump Georgia case" (WaPo).

"For those who generally have faith in Willis, she was understandably enraged and gave a master class in how to defend oneself in a public setting."

"For others, her protestations were over the top. Even so, the fact that there was even a hearing into Willis and whether she has a financial conflict of interest in the case was a windfall for Trump. Obviously, it would be an enormous boon for him if Willis or the entire Fulton County district attorney’s office is disqualified. But even if neither Willis nor her office is disqualified and her office is allowed to continue prosecuting this case, the damage done to the public’s perception of the case is incontrovertible...."

From "Fani Willis just gave Donald Trump exactly what he wants/The fact that there was even a hearing into Willis' alleged financial conflict of interest is great news for defendant Trump" (MSNBC).

That's MSNBC, take note.

"A friend of Ms. Willis, Robin Bryant-Yeartie, testified that she had 'no doubt' that the romance began before Ms. Willis hired Mr. Wade for the case."

That would contradict the timeline presented by the prosecutors, who said it began after Mr. Wade was hired...."

From "Live Updates: Key Witness Contradicts Trump Prosecutors’ Timeline of Relationship/A former friend and colleague of Fani Willis says the district attorney’s romance with the lead prosecutor in the Georgia election interference case began before he was hired, possibly bolstering defense lawyers’ claims of a conflict of interest" (NYT).

There's live video at that link. Wade is testifying as I write this.

UPDATE: "Nathan Wade is sticking to his contention that his romantic relationship with Fani Willis began in 2022, after he started working for the district attorney's office in November 2021. It was 'early' 2022, he says in response to the defense attorney's probing.... A key sticking point has been who paid for trips that Nathan Wade and Fani Willis took together.... Wade says that Willis typically reimbursed him in cash for their joint travel, so there aren’t credit card receipts available to show that."

"While the allegations raised in the various motions are salacious and garnered the media attention they were designed to obtain, none provide this Court with any basis upon which to order the relief they seek."

Said Fani Willis in a new court filing, quoted in "Prosecutor in Trump Georgia Case Admits Relationship With Colleague/But the prosecutor, Fani T. Willis, said there wasn’t a relationship with Nathan Wade before she hired him and argued that it should not disqualify her" (NYT).

"She looks so simple in her way/Does the same thing every day/But she's dedicated/To having her own way/She's very complicated...."

I'm listening to the old Rolling Stones song a propos of this NYT headline:

How strategic was Trump's lawyer's choice of the word "haughtiness"?

I'm reading — in The New York Times — "Trump Prosecutor in Georgia Seeks to Avoid Testifying in Colleague’s Divorce Case/Fani T. Willis was subpoenaed in the divorce case of a colleague she hired to manage the Trump prosecution in Georgia, with whom she is accused of having a romantic relationship."

I already think it is a huge problem when someone who wields prosecutorial power — threatening the liberty of private citizens — asserts that she is the real victim here, the victim of racial prejudice, racial prejudice bubbling under the surface.

But look at this:

"Judge in Trump Georgia case orders hearing on Fani Willis misconduct claims."

WaPo reports.

"'Do my work, ignore the distractions,' she said God told her."

"She" is Fani T. Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, who wants us to think God speaks directly to her.

I'm reading "Atlanta D.A. Defends Qualifications of Outside Lawyer She Hired for Trump Case/At a historic Black church, Fani T. Willis pushed back against an accusation that Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she brought on, was unqualified for the job" (NYT).

We're told "Ms. Willis said she turned to prayer last week, at one point even writing a letter to God in which she expressed self-doubt." Expressed self-doubt but also seems to have reprimanded God for not telling her how challenging life would be:

"District Attorney Fani Willis improperly hired an alleged romantic partner to prosecute Donald Trump and financially benefited from their relationship..."

"... according to a court motion filed Monday.... The bombshell public filing alleged that special prosecutor Nathan Wade, a private attorney, paid for lavish vacations he took with Willis using the Fulton County funds his law firm received. County records show that Wade, who has played a prominent role in the election interference case, has been paid nearly $654,000 in legal fees since January 2022. The DA authorizes his compensation. The motion, filed on behalf of defendant Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign official, seeks to have the charges against Roman dismissed and for Willis, Wade and the entire DA’s office to be disqualified from further prosecution of the case...."

From "Filing alleges ‘improper’ relationship between Fulton DA, top Trump prosecutor" (Atlanta Journal-Constitution).

Was Trump's use of the word "riggers" a veiled racial slur?

 I'm reading "Trump prosecutor Fani Willis faces racist abuse after indicting ex-US president/Georgia prosecutor subjected to flurry of threats after Trump makes thinly veiled reference to N-word after latest charges" (The Guardian).

Right after Willis announced the indictments, Trump wrote on Truth Social: "They never went after those that Rigged the Election. They only went after those that fought to find the RIGGERS!"

The Guardian notes: "Willis is African American. So too are the two New York-based prosecutors who have investigated Trump, the Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg who indicted him in April over alleged hush-money payments, and Letitia James, the state attorney general who is investigating Trump’s financial records."

How can one ever know? "Rig" has been such a common word in this years-long controversy. But I'd never noticed the use of the word "rigger" before. In my entire 20-year archive, the word "rigger" has never appeared — not in my writing and not in anything I've quoted. It's an unusual, unnecessary word. I'd avoid it. 

Unique difficulties.

I'm reading "In Georgia and federal indictments, two vastly different approaches/Fani Willis’s sprawling case allows prosecutors to target Trump’s broad scheme. But legal experts and critics say both the scope and specificity could be a problem" (WaPo).

Legal experts said the difference in strategy comes with some advantages: District Attorney Fani Willis’s sprawling case will allow Fulton County prosecutors to tell the jury a story of a broad conspiracy to reverse election results in multiple states and build a forceful narrative of Trump’s actions in concert with numerous aides, lawyers and local officials. But experts warned that the logistics of putting Trump on trial along with 18 other people — each of whom may file a flurry of pretrial motions — in a racketeering indictment so complex and multilayered could carry unique difficulties....

It seems the elite experts believe the prosecuting ought to be left to the elite — the feds. The "unique difficulties" here include depriving the federal prosecutors of control over how big of a bite to take. How can they regain control without insulting the Fulton County DA?