Mar.16

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Dem 51

   

GOP 49

Willis Wins a Pyrrhic Victory

As promised, Judge Scott McAfee issued his ruling on the question of whether or not Fulton County DA Fani Willis must recuse herself from the prosecution of Donald Trump and his co-defendants. And while she CAN stay on the case, per the Judge, whether she SHOULD remains an open question.

In other words, McAfee's ruling, while it did not order Willis to remove herself from the case, was scathing. Among the key points:

• Willis and her now-former paramour Nathan Wade could not both remain on the case; one or the other of them were required to go. Yesterday afternoon, Wade fell on his sword and withdrew.
  
  
• McAfee wrote that while a conflict of interest was not proven, the situation carried "the appearance of impropriety" and "an odor of mendacity remains."
  
  
• He also noted that while he was not certain enough for it to be actionable, he remains suspicious as to whether Willis and Wade "testified untruthfully" about when their relationship began.
  
  
• He suggested that while he was not in a position to sanction Willis, other entities, like the state bar and the state ethics commission might look into doing so.
  
  
• He is very unhappy about Willis' "tremendous lapse in judgment" in general, and in particular with "the unprofessional manner" in which she testified in his courtroom last month.

In short, the Judge did not mince words.

At this point, Willis has three options, all of them with downsides. She could remain on the case (and she probably will), but if so, her conduct will most certainly find its way into the trial, with defense lawyers finding ways to remind the jury that even the judge doesn't particularly trust her. On top of that, dealing with a judge who has levied such criticism, and whose obvious message was "I can't remove you, but I'd like to see you remove yourself" is less than ideal.

Alternatively, Willis could hand the prosecution off to some sort of outside entity. She would not only have to get approval for that, she would also have to bring the new prosecutor(s) up to speed on the case. And with a case this big and this complicated, that is no small feat. Should the DA pursue this option, there is no chance that the matter goes to trial this year.

The third option is to split the difference, and to hand the prosecution off, but to someone already in Willis' office. That person (or those people) would still carry some of the taint that Willis carries, just by association, but they would not be in as shaky a position as she is. However, since these hypothetical individuals would be new to the case, they would have to get up to speed, too. This presumably wouldn't take as long as it would if an outsider was chosen, but it wouldn't be quick, either. So, this path would probably also postpones the trial(s) until next year.

Regardless of what happens, at least some amount of time has been added to the timeline, since a replacement for Wade will need to be identified, hired, and brought up to speed on whatever portions of the case he was handling. And, some amount of uncertainty has been added to the proceedings, as Willis is now compromised in various ways. If only Wade were gay, none of this would have happened.

Of course, the underlying fact is that she hired her boyfriend and she should never, ever have done that, so she brought this upon herself. How could she have thought no one would find out about their relationship? (Z)