Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, has come under pressure amid allegations she had an affair with a special prosecutor she hired in the case, Nathan Wade.
Trump and 18 others are accused in a 41-count indictment of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia. The former president has pleaded not guilty to all 13 charges against him and has repeatedly said the case is part of a political witch hunt aimed at undermining his position as frontrunner for the GOP 2024 presidential nomination.
Former Trump staffer Michael Roman, a co-defendant, made the accusations about Willis without evidence, and sought to disqualify her and Wade from the trial. Willis and Wade said they had a romantic relationship on Friday but denied this represented a conflict of interest. An evidentiary hearing on the matter is scheduled for February 16. Newsweek contacted Willis by social media to comment on this story.
PHOTO BY CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Now, a new filing by lawyers for former state GOP chair and Trump co-defendant David Shafer seeks to remove her for making a speech in January in which she questioned why Wade, who is Black, was being singled out when her other two special prosecutors are white.
“All the causes for the disqualification are self-inflicted blows,” says the motion. Willis has strayed “wildly from the legal guardrails that are designed to protect the accused from improper, extrajudicial comments.”
“The obvious intent of her remarks was to inject and infect the jury pool in Fulton County with unfounded allegations that anyone who dares question her or Mr. Wade’s conduct must have done so for racist purposes,” the motion adds. “These comments constitute prosecutorial, forensic misconduct and warrant her removal and that of her office from the prosecution of this case.”
On Saturday, Glenn Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. attorney and frequent critic of Trump, added his own voice to the chorus of legal analysts, calling the alleged scandal “much ado about nothing” in a YouTube video.
“It’s a bad look in the court of public opinion, but it looks like it will be much ado about nothing in the court of law,” Kirschner said. “Based on what I’ve reviewed and what I’ve read, what I’ve seen. I don’t think it will have any impact on the RICO [racketeering] prosecution of Donald Trump and his criminal associates down in Georgia.”
Former prosecutor Preet Bharara said on his Stay Tuned With Preet podcast that despite the pressure, Willis will remain on the case.
“I don’t think Fani Willis will go,” Bharara said on the podcast released on February 2. “I think she will insist on remaining, and will be permitted to remain, in charge of the prosecution that she oversaw in the investigative stage, in the grand jury stage and now as it goes to trial.”
Wade, however, could drop out of the case because the suit against him is a “distraction,” Bharara said. “It raises questions in whether it is fair or not. I think he is probably going to go.”
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