The judge in the Fani Willis case ruled today that Team Trump failed to prove a conflict of interest because of her romantic relationship with prosecutor Nathan Wade:
But the judge also found a “significant appearance of impropriety that infects the current structure of the prosecution team” and said either Willis and her office must fully leave the case or Wade must withdraw.
Sigh. The "appearance" of impropriety is mostly because the Trumpies yelled and screamed about it.
So now Willis has to find a new prosecutor, a job that no one wants because it will put them in Trump's crosshairs—which, these days, means doxxing, harassment, and having your past examined under a microscope for anything that might prove useful to the opposition. Who needs it?
Plenty of hungry lawyers out there. The question is how many who are well-qualified and currently well-compensated would take the job. A small number, sure, but some may do it for the visibility.
It strikes me that the level of personal risk lawyers feel must be extraordinary for them to turn down working on such a high profile case. It seems obvious that it could have huge career benefits that are still outweighed by the risk of you or your loved ones being attacked and possibly even killed. THAT'S what should be in the news headlines everyday, not whether a couple people dated and went on some vacations.
Yes. Considering that the prosecutor will be firmly on the right side of the law, the Constitution, and American democracy. A real career booster, as opposed to defending The Indefensible (formerly known as The Defendant).
They'll also have death threats and stalkers for the rest of their lives.
And yet they haven’t had any trouble finding prosecutors for the other 3 Trump prosecutions nor did Jean Carroll have any trouble finding lawyers to go after Trump. Also plenty of people besides Wade are also working this case and they too are facing death threats.
I find it very difficult to imagine Wade was the one man in America brave enough to handle this case. Her argument real
It seems to me that there are two levels of personal risk in this case. On one level there’s the MAGATs who are not only fine with threatening you but also your family and their enablers in the right wing media are willing to fan the flames and out your and your loved ones whereabouts. That’s pretty scary, but also on another level is the possibility that Trump will be “President” again and you may well be a target of his revenge. Anyone who thinks the law will protect them against Trump’s revenge is living in a fantasy world. There are no laws that Trump will observe once he has power again.
Once again the media mindlessly parrots the Republicans’ frame of an issue. The idea that there is a conflict of interest is idiotic. As Barb McQuade pointed out there is no conflict of interest when romantic partners are on the same side of a case. She and her husband have worked together on cases which is considered an “alliance of interest”. Also the idea the Willis hired Wade so he could afford to take her on trips is bonkers since he makes more money in his private practice.
You are right about the danger of going up against Republicans on a case like this. Apparently the judge put off his ruling for a week to make sure he had adequate protection in place for himself, his wife and his young kids. That will either cost him or taxpayers a lot of money. According to Willis’s father’s testimony Fulton County law enforcement has had to guard Fani so hopefully they will be the ones protecting the judge. Republicans squander millions on investigations of false scandals going back to Clinton.
If there was no other problem with their relationship then why did they keep it secret for so long? I would also imagine it would be a big problem if say Garland named his wife to prosecute Trump.
No one but partisan hacks really thinks Trump putting Lara as the head of the RNC is fine or giving his kids security clearance and government jobs was good.
The most obvious candidates, like former governor Roy Barnes, would lose too many clients. In fact, he already turned it down.
I think Willis did this to herself. Not just getting into it in the first place, but her sermon about racism, her combative and totally unprofessional testimony, things like that pretty much guaranteed to anger the judge.
And I have to say, that attitude seems to be a job requirement for working in the Fulton DA's office. My one and only direct interaction with them was when the county raised our property taxes 57% in a single year (not that bad -- guy down the street got 120%). In that incident, the DA simply refused to obey state law and dared us to do anything about it.
The appearance was much more than merely Trumpies screaming about it - anyone with legal background and not deeply bought into the partisan view could see it. Law is law, not politics.
Willis gratitiously opened herself up to this (and opened the case up to procedural attack, which is simply something that must be anticiapted in any and all such legal cases, whinging on about the opponent IDing the procedural attack opportunity is mere incompetence and political hackery [see Trump in NY for the flip side of that]). It was trivially easy to avoid and trivially easy to predict that such a high profile case would see such examination. That they thought they could keep hidden was a display of stunning bad judgment.
Her claims no one wanted to touch the position were just that, claims, and rather questionable, although eagerly lapped up by partisans as just so explanation.
Agreed. It is inappropriate in a business situation for a manager to have a secret personal relationship with any subordinate. It was simply bad judgement to do so, and given this case, there was a 100% probability that their relationship would be discovered and a 100% probability it would be weaponized by their opposition.
Orange Jesus won again, since the trial has been delayed and will be further delayed as this is sorted out.
True, and yet “boss dates their employee” is a plot line of numerous TV shows and movies, which suggests both (1) it’s extremely common despite HR departments discouraging or prohibiting it and (2) Americans in general don’t find it scandalous when it happens, or else those TV shows and movies wouldn’t be so well watched.
In other words, it’s “wrong” but not as wrong as, say, destroying democracy. More akin to how it’s also “wrong” to not yield to pedestrians, which happens every day in every community.
I know of a few very long-lasting stable marriages that began with one party being the student of the other in a dojo. Sensei is a very powerful position, maybe even more powerful than supervisor is sometimes.
And some people make it work. Others abuse the hell out of it. I know both stories.
Rom Coms are one thing, but in corporate America, a relationship between a supervisor and a subordinate is highly problematic, and non disclosure to HR could be grounds for termination.
In this case given the 100% likelihood of the current developments actually occurring, it was simply fucking stupid.
Actually from everything I have read having a relationship with a coworker in Georgia legal practices is not forbidden. Given that Wade has a very successful private practice where he makes more money than he does working for the state he is not less powerful than Willis. The fact that they were working on the same side means they had, in Barbara McQuade’s words an “alliance” not a “conflict” of interest.
We all know that Trump and his kids all have had serious conflicts of interest — the Kushners getting billions from the Saudis alone — yet the media has obsessed far more about this idiotic pseudo-scandal than they have the Trumps’ real conflicts of interest that threaten our national security.
+1
lol people watch these storylines precisely because they’re scandalous. If they were as routine as how I met my girlfriends and wife no one would watch that.
Hollywood also shows a world in which cops are almost always right and never abuse their power. I don’t think anyone believes that.
In this case, there would be no practical effect; since Wade was the lead prosecutor, his decisions would prevail over the prosecutorial team, regardless of whether DA Willis was disposed to favor him. It was only about appearances. Different when a manager has a group of subordinates who should be treated equally.
Anyone, but apparently no one willing to go on record who isn't Trumpy.
Fuck that.
Odd comment.
You claim the impropriety is very obvious, but you cant actually identify the legal impropriety, the conflict, the thing that impacts the case other than people screaming 'eww, sex between consenting adults!'.
This was Kevin's point.
Other than your infinite wisdom on all topics, how do you know so much more than the people involved in the case aboit the desirability of this position?
I haven't read that Willis asserted that "no one wanted to touch the position". She said she approached two other lawyers, whom she named, who turned the job down before she approached Wade.
The main take away seems to me that Trump "lost" as to appearance but in fact he won. Replacing the second in command will delay the trial almost as much as replacing the first.
The judge found a way to rule correctly under the law (Willis is not guilty of having enriched herself) and yet do Trump's bidding.
A big city DA's office prosecutes lots of crimes, and so has lots of prosecutors. Willis can simply reassign Wade to one of the other cases and reassign the prosecutor handling that other case to the Trump case. Obviously, it will take a little time for the lawyers to get up to speed on their new cases, but the Trump trial isn't scheduled to start that soon so there shouldn't be any resulting delay in the trial.
Wade is not Willis' employee for anything except this case. He is an independent attorney with his own pretty lucrative practice.
And "Yes, there will be a delay in the trial." Willis has to go back to a new Grand Jury to cure the Indictments about the phone call to Secretary of State Raffensperger. That is the underlying crime so far as Trump is concerned; you can't have a conspiracy if you don't have an underlying crime.
Ironically, Merchant's client is still firmly on the hook, because the Indictments for the False Electors claim were properly formed and remain in force.
Seems to me there's blame to go around pretty much everywhere, but things turned out about as fairly as could be expected. Willis and Wade displayed materially poor judgment for people in their position, but only Wade has to leave the case. The Trump people turned the whole thing into a media circus, but they didn't accomplish much beyond a delay (contra azumbrunn, I don't think it will delay the case much further) which means the case continues and a little bit of extra stink has stuck to them. The judge let it turn into more of a media circus than necessary, but in the end he did pretty much the right thing. I wouldn't say anybody "won" or "lost" entirely.
Agreed.
Kevin has bemoaned the "hack gap" on this (and many other) topics; if the roles were reversed, no Republican would ever admit that anything improper or even unadvisable had occurred, so why are Democrats so willing to criticize Willis and Wade here?
I like to think that Democrats hold ourselves to a higher standard, but I also recognize that unilateral disarmament doesn't work, and we can't be afraid to play according to the rules as they exist.
Still, now that we have a resolution, can we finally recognize that this was really dumb behavior on the part of Willis and Wade? What were they thinking?!?!
We shouldn't hold ourselves to impossible standards, or bow to rumors.
That's how.
The Team t-Rump is always looking for DELAY at any cost. Let’s hope there is a good lawyer in the wings.
People are assuming that Wade will leave the case, which seems reasonable. However, what does the other option even look like? How does Willis' office leave the case and have the case even remain? Does "her office" simply mean her and her paralegals, etc?
I mean, maybe that's the best avenue that provides the least delay, but I don't really understand the option.
It’s been very bizarre how accepting liberals have been of a case of a supervisor sleeping with a contractor. That would get you in very hot water at any professional workplace.
I didn’t know that Me Too had a Strong Black Woman exception.
Perhaps. But it’s also how hundreds of thousands (maybe millions?) of happily married couples will tell you they met. Something hundreds of thousands of Americans are openly doing, and is a common plot line on rom-com movies and America’s most watched TV shows, can’t be that morally awful.
It's not morally awful, but it was unwise.
LOL!
That's not the question. The question is whether that relationship resulted in a COI for a RICO case. The judge ruled against the optics, but didn't find a COI that meant the case had to be thrown out.
It's been bizarre* how outraged the Trump cult right has been of a case of a Black woman sleeping with a Black man while holding a professional position.
*LOL! No, it's par for the course.
Do you really think the Trump cult would have passed if Willis and Wade were white? Don't mis-interpret, I have no illusions as to Trumpists, but they would go after anyone going after their guy.
Also FWIW, I did this (slept with my boss) at my current employer, and the only punishment we received was me having to transfer to another department so that he was no longer my boss. I think HR depts know that the number of people sleeping with their boss or contractor is way higher than zero, and a lot depends on how good the employees are and how high up they are on the org chart in determining whether they get fired.
So the outcome here - Wade can’t work for Willis anymore - seems about right to me at least. Turning on Friends now to watch Rachel sleep with her hot assistant again while you all go back to pearl clutching.
Lol, what a dumb troll.
Nobody really cares about 2 consenting adults having a brief relationship.
Wade is not really a subordinate of Willis in any meaningful sense of the word he has a very successful legal practice where he makes far more money that he does working on this case, He lost money taking this case and put his life in danger. That is not an exaggeration. The judge has had to get protection for himself, wife and young kids.
Just another version of GOQ manufactured reality.
Repub: The elections are rigged!11!
A small segment of the public: I am concerned about the integrity of the elections.
Repubs en mass: There's a public outcry for election reform!111!!1
Whatever you think of the bad things done by the American military during WWII, they were not the enemy. They were defending the country from the enemy.
Whatever you think of Fani Willis, she is not the enemy. She is defending the country from the enemy.
How does one answer the "Who needs it?" question? Ask the 400,000+ Americans who died in WWII defending their country from the enemy.
“Freedom is not free. It is bought at a high price. It can be squandered cheaply.” - Jerry Pournelle
Trumpists, by stating their preference for a dictatorship, disavow their citizenship, --so why do we need to have even a pretense of respect for their pretended concerns which are clearly made only for the purpose of destroying our citizenship?
Anything coming from such a source can be dismissed out of hand.
Mutual respect is ideal, and unilateral respect is not ideal, but mutual disrespect is worse.
"Love even for enemies is the key solution of the problems of the world." - Martin Luther King Jr.
As a famous British philosopher often says, you need to have a little sympathy for the devil or you won't to be able to see the devil in yourself.
I'm a little out of the loop, so maybe I'm wrong, but isn't the relationship over? Is the judge really saying two prosecutors can't work together who *ever* had sex?
This one's over, in terms of relevance. Willis fucked it up royally, in multiple ways. This was handled so incredibly arrogantly and stupidly. She is exactly the wrong prosecutor for a case like this.
There will be more delay as they get their shit together, and then yet more as they get closer to... starting to pick a jury. Which will be another months-long clusterfuck.
Georgia won't produce any movement useful for keeping Stumpy out of power. Willis' political career is over. I hope the sex was good.
Don't forget, they're passing a law to reign in attorney generals, i.e. the lets go after Fani Willis for prosecting Trump for breaking the law.
Perhaps. Still, a prosecutor bringing charges, no matter how slam-dunk, against a former president wouldacouldashoulda known that he and his supporters would be looking for even the tiniest shred of cartilage in her closet and cleaned all that up. You don't go after a bear with jerky in your pocket. Or something like that...
If we only let people fight Trump who are perfect, we're going to lose.
That just judge should have burst into flames as soon as the last exhalation of the verdict passed the lips. Impropriety indeed. There's a big orange impropriety directly in front of the dais yet nothing to be done.
Hubris and hypocrisy.
One of the best, and most frustrating things about "the law" is that in the eyes of the law someone may walk like a duck, and talk like a duck, but until the actual trial is over they must be presumed to be a swan. The trial/hearing/whatnot for Willis and her relationship with the person she hired has completed. The trial of Trump has not.
I seem to remember serial sidesteps with his behavior and then when they become too awful and blatant, curtailing of his behavior is ordered and THEN he serially violates those orders and continues his poor behavior in court and in public. You can pretend the court is some how adhering to some higher standard but it is obvious it is not. Pretense does not hide hubris. The dipshit Air Natty Guardsmen is being held until September when his sentence is decided. Yet the former president flounces repeatedly from court to court without restraint or penalty. They are even considering briefing him on security manners during the election.
The court is full of shit, hubris and hypocrisy. I would have been executed already has I done only half of what he has publicly admitted to.
Then I guess you are left with continuing to sharpen your torches and lighting your pitchforks.
Are they leaving choices? Daily they further demonstrate that at least two tiers of justice exist in this country when there was only one conceived.
I guess I should relax and just observe as we creep ever closer to our very own Bibi moment. Ain't democracy grand?
In what world is an affair involving someone with supervisory authority over them OK? They even get it was a problem given that they kept it secret for so long.
Wade was a seriously under qualified person who’d never led a felony prosecution before. He only got the job because of their relationship.
Only people as partisan as the MAGAs don’t see where there’s a problem with this relationship. I am deeply disappointed with people who think this is nothing.
You cannot possibly know this.
One can think that the (former) relationship was problematic and still find that it is not prejudicial against the defense.
If you believe that Attorney Wade is ‘seriously under qualified’, you must think TFG’s team is stupid to get him thrown off the case.
He might have only taken the job because of the relationship, in which case Willis should be commended for going above and beyond.
The judge’s ruling is here: https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24482771/order-on-motion-to-disqualify.pdf
Fani Willis is a dope. She has let Trump off the hook and blown up her career. Her MLK speech would have been enough, but add in "I'm not the one on trial here".
Then trowel in Nathan Wade and the untraceable cash escapade. What a dope. All due respect.