Dem
51
GOP
49
When Fani Willis appointed her alleged boyfriend, Nathan Wade, to lead the RICO investigation, she gave Republicans the opportunity to undermine the entire investigation, and they haven't wasted much time grabbing it. On a strict party line vote, 30-19, the Georgia Senate approved a resolution calling for the creation of a special committee to investigate Willis. Democrats blasted the move as something that will "get into bedroom politics." The committee will have nine members, including three Democrats. We're going to go out on a limb here and predict: (1) the committee will determine that what Willis did violated some ethical principle, and (2) she thus has to take herself off the case.
Are the Georgia senators at all right about this? Ankush Khardori, writing for Politico, has a pretty thorough item on the subject, and his answer is: "No." He points out, first of all, that the filing that started this whole brouhaha was probably unethical, as it offered only insinuations, and no factual support for its claims. Doubling down on the ethical shadiness, the filing also appears to have deliberately excluded mention of controlling law that runs contrary to its claims (the Supreme Court ruled 15 years ago that conflicts of interest do not trigger criminal liability, despite the claims made in the Georgia filing).
Continuing, Khardori notes that lawyers are people, too, and that when they work together in a professional context, there can and often will be interpersonal dynamics that develop (or that pre-exist; keep reading). The local pool of lawyers, in any given place, is small enough that if professional and personal connections were enough to derail a case or overturn a verdict, the justice system wouldn't function. That said, while Willis' actions are not likely to have an effect on the case, her dancing around and her attempts to obfuscate have created the appearance of impropriety. So, Khardori concludes, she really needs to come clean, just to clear the air.
In other words, the Georgia state Senate is full of it. The committee that is appointed will have no power to enforce its findings, and again, while Willis' hiring of her close friend/boyfriend is icky, it is not illegal or even a violation of any state or professional rules. The intention of the Georgia Senate Republicans is to pressure her into dropping out of the case. A far better solution for her is to tell Wade to voluntarily resign. Of course, he probably likes the nearly $700,000 he has made so far and was kinda hoping for more as the case continues.
The allegations that Willis got something in return from Wade are starting to come in. A court filing last week included credit card statements showing that Wade purchased plane tickets for himself and Willis. No doubt he is a true gentleman, taking care of his lady friend, but that was almost as dumb a move as her appointing him in the first place. She probably makes at least $100K/yr. She can afford to buy her own plane tickets.
The judge in the RICO case, Scott McAfee, has set Feb. 15 as the date to hear the allegations and decide what to do about them, if anything. She would do herself much good if she told the unfettered truth, and then agreed to hire someone else to do the work Wade is doing. Even Democrats are now encouraging her to fire Wade and replace him with one of the experienced prosecutors on her staff.
Incidentally, Donald Trump has been watching all of this, and he very much likes what he sees. He has joined in on the effort to bring down Willis. On top of that, he and Alina Habba have discovered that Judge Lewis Kaplan and E. Jean Carroll lawyer Roberta Kaplan worked at the same firm... 30 years ago. So, Habba filed a letter asserting that the whole trial, and the verdict, are thus invalid. Good luck with that, Alina and Donald. See above about the interconnectedness of the legal profession. And if you don't believe us on that point, believe CNN legal analyst Elle Honig, who said the same thing after Habba's letter was filed. Gonna have to find another windmill to tilt at, folks. (V & Z)