Key Points
- Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants can continue, but only if Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis or prosecutor Nathan Wade removes themselves.
- The ruling represents a middle ground following the revelation that Willis and Wade were engaged in a romantic relationship for more than a year.
- Willis and Wade admitted to the relationship only after it was first alleged in January court filings for defendant Michael Roman.
I mean this seems appropriate. One of the two should have just stepped back from the case (Wade) when they got involved personally.
However, Fani’s decision making throughout has been simply indefensible. This trial is the ONLY trial going on where Trump can’t go to the Supreme Court to get the decision changed. Fani putting this whole thing up for grabs for the sake of a personal relationhship, her decision to go with Wade as council for this case, not just front running this and removing Wade. It all is just so disappointing considering this should have been a slam dunk. Instead she gave media all the ammunition they’ll need to call the ruling ‘corrupt’ and ‘fake’. I mean we have the god damned tapes. She could have just ran this by the book and it would have been a slam dunk. Maybe she could have gone on some dates with the attorney on the cop city trial instead and gotten thrown off that instead.
Its not clear to me how this will impact the overall case moving forward, but its done damage, that’s for certain. Can’t feign ignorance around how important perception is on things like this.
Yep this was the correct call by the judge. It should have been blindingly obvious that this would be the result of them starting their relationship. Yet they went ahead with it anyway and put the whole case at risk. Completely insane decision making on display here.
This trial is the ONLY trial going on where Trump can’t go to the Supreme Court to get the decision changed.
There’s the New York Stormy Daniels payola trial too. That one is going to be coming up first.
Why do you refer to the man with his last name and to the woman with her first name?
Plus had they disqualified the case, it would have removed it from her ENTIRE office to be able to take it over and continue. Had she just stepped back, one of her deputies could have taken it over and run with it. This was a risky move, and due to it being the only one Trump can’t quash federally, really scary to have dug her heels in like she did. She’s lucky it didn’t go another way.
No we’re lucky she got lucky.
This was a completely dipshit tactic on her part.
Okay, and i am reliably informed the decision is sound and reasonable, so, cool but
Why should I care if they’re dating? Which, they broke up awhile ago so - Is it affecting the prosecution somehow? If so, the claimants never argued that, at least successfully.
Were they suppressing evidence together, somehow, despite being on the same side? Were they inappropriately discussing plea deals for people they’re on the same side of? They never said.
The best they had was to say Fani was spending public money on trips and fancy dinners for them - but they never even produced one single piece of evidence that they did so. Yeah they went to Napa valley together, stayed at the Doubletree, and paid out of their own pocket. A fancy vacation that totaled, maybe $3,000? And that was their best evidence?
As far as paying hundreds of thousands, they broke down the contract payments to “about half the market rate for a criminal law attorney” so - ? Wade would be doubling his salary to be let go? I guess that’s - I don’t know what that’s supposed to prove.
I think it was an ill-conceived gambit on the part of one of the co-defendants which the trump legal brain trust seized on and blew up as big as possible. Which was much ado about nothing.
And if there was ever anything that was going to make the DA bear down even harder, however that may play out, that was probably it. So. A bad idea, concluded.
Agreed, them having a relationship shouldn’t even have been an issue. Maybe the court would spend a day to explain to the defense that the court will not deal with conspiracy theories, then on with the show. Giving this nonsense months of attention when none of it is relevant to the case (or defense), should have been enough to move this on almost immediately.
And why would the defense be the ones to bring it up?! If those two were a distraction to each other that’s a win for Trump. But you know they want anyone but her on the other side because she’s actually go at her job.
If you’re trying to keep track of where we’re at in the Trump prosecutions:
Updated 03/15/2024
New York
34 state felonies
Stormy Daniels Payoff
Investigation
Indictment
Arrest <- You Are Here
Trial - March 25th, 2024
As with the January 6th trial, Trump lawyers are attempting to delay citing Presidential Immunity, despite the fact that Trump was not President when the crimes were committed.
Conviction
SentencingWashington, D.C.
4 federal felonies
January 6th Election Interference
Investigation
Indictment
Arrest <- You Are Here
Trial - The trial, originally scheduled for March 4th, has been placed on hold pending the Supreme Court ruling on Presidential Immunity. They are due to hear those arguments on April 25th.
Conviction
SentencingFlorida
40 federal felonies
Top Secret Documents charges
Investigation
Indictment
Original indictment was for 37 felonies.
3 new felonies were added on July 27, 2023.
Arrest <- You Are Here
Trial - May 20, 2024
Conviction
SentencingGeorgia
10 state felonies
Election Interference
As of 3/13/24 - Judge McAfee cleared 6 charges, 3 against Trump, saying they were too generic to be enforced.
As of 3/15/24 - The case may proceed, but either Fulton County DA, Fani Willis and her office or Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade must remove themselves due to the appearance of impropriety.
Investigation
Indictment
Arrest <- You Are Here
All 19 defendants have surrendered.
Trial - A trial date of Aug. 5, 2024 has been requested, not approved yet.
Three defendants, Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, and bail bondsman Scott Hall, have all pled guilty and have agreed to testify in other cases.
Conviction
SentencingOther grand juries, such as for the documents at Bedminster, or the Arizona fake electors, have not been announced.
The E. Jean Carroll trial for sexual assault and defamation where Trump was found liable and ordered to pay $5 million before immediately defaming her again resulting in a demand for $10 million is not listed as it’s a civil case and not a crimimal one. He was found liable in that case for $83.3 million.
There had been multiple cases in multiple states to remove Trump from the ballot, citing ineligibility under the 14th amendment.
The Supreme Court ruled on March 4th that states do not have the ability to determine eligibility in Federal elections.
Part of me feels like the reason people are making a mountain of this, is because Willis is a woman. I don’t understand how prosecutors in a relationship is a conflict of interest issue here, and that their personal lives are on trial for something unrelated.
Would the same thing be happening it Willis was a man? Do we usually just attack the prosecutors themselves in the Courtroom? I think it would make sense if it was the defense or the judge they had a relationship with but the whole thing seems blown out of proportion.
This is probably the most important trial in the nation at the moment, maybe one of the most important since the civil war. Willis being a woman is irrelevant and something mainstream D and leftist media keep trying to trot out instead of addressing the issue head on.
Issue number one, is that she hired a personal injury lawyer for a constitutional law case. That alone should be enough to remove Wade from the trial. This isn’t his field of expertise and this shouldn’t be fucking amateur hour.
Then she starts dating him? and is taking trips on what appears to be the States dime? Bruh I don’t give a shit. This trial is way too important for this kind of fuckery. Like she’s taking the Cop CIty trial more seriously than she is this one. What the actual fuck??!?!
No fucking excuses. Her actions on this trial have been indefensible.
It is gob smacking to see this own goal, and I also find myself wondering why she made such poor decisions.
For those not interested in blind conjecture (such as the post above yours), I recommend these resources as jumping off points:Thanks for your perspective.
It sounds like though, her actions on this trial could be called “being human” as well.
Is there evidence that says Wade is a bad and otherwise unfit lawyer for this case? I could be wrong, but it sounds like he paid for the trip they took. In either case what would that matter? How does that affect their judgement to act in this case?
Anyone can answer, but right now I’m not convinced this isn’t a dog and pony show diversion. If I get a chance, I’ll try and learn more about Willis and this case.
It isn’t that it affects the trial per se, but it looks like corruption, right?
I use my government position to hire my private practice lover for a high profile case, and then they treat me to several expensive vacations?
It’s not that it points to something fishy with the case directly, but when the DA is involved in obvious corruption, I can see bringing it up if your only defense is “this trial is part of a corrupt bid to keep me off the ballot.”
It’s not, but holy cow does it add fuel to that fire if you are in fact engaged in obvious corruption elsewhere.
I don’t think it looks like corruption, though. Being in a government position doesn’t make you immune from hiring from a pool of people you know, nor do I think that’s an overt problem if it’s on your own dime. These two are lovers, but they took several vacations because of her position? I don’t think that follows.
All of this is really beside my original point. I think a woman’s personal life has been made the main feature of a high profile case, and now everyone’s scrutinizing Willis, over dubious behavior at best, instead of at the defendant who’s accused of committing high crimes.
Anyone continuing to incite blame on Willis is falling for this obvious nonsense.
But she didn’t hire him on her own dime. She used her position as DA to have the DA’s office hire him to try the case.
You are absolutely not allowed to hire from a pool of people you know on the government’s dime. If the Department of Energy puts out a contract to build a power plant, the guy in charge of who gets hired has to disclose any conflict of interest, and is 1000% not allowed to award that work to a friend without oversight.
And if they did, and that friend then started giving them expensive gifts, that’s a huge huge no no.
And while you’re right that she does claim that they split the cost of the vacations, she claims that she reimbursed him for her half in cash, and has no receipts to that affect. Which could very well be true, but you must admit looks terrible.
You don’t get to ‘just be human’ at this level. Sorry. This isn’t the fucking beer leagues.
Willis is a BLACK woman. Yes, a man would have less trouble, a white man? Nobody would have blinked.
That DA is making some decisions.
