OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
After he refused to disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis following allegations of perjury and an inappropriate relationship with a prosecutor she hired, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee dropped another ruling against former President Donald Trump.
McAfee won’t allow Trump’s 2024 campaign to hire co-defendant Harrison Floyd, Newsweek is reporting.
On Thursday, McAfee issued a brief order denying Floyd’s request to modify his bond agreement. Floyd, who spearheaded Black Voices for Trump four years ago, had petitioned the judge last month to relax the terms of his bond, enabling him to participate in Trump’s presidential campaign activities and discuss Trump on social media. McAfee had previously expressed willingness to consider adjustments to allow Floyd to address current events.
Floyd, indicted on three felony counts related to his involvement in supporting Trump’s efforts to contest his Georgia election loss, is presently restricted from contacting witnesses and other co-defendants in the case. Additionally, he has been prohibited from discussing them on social media following comments perceived as threatening by some witnesses, the outlet reported.
“According to the indictment, Floyd allegedly harassed Fulton County election worker Ruby Freeman after she refused to change the results of the county’s vote in the 2020 election,” Newsweek reported.
“He was the only one of the 19 defendants in the case to spend time behind bars at the Fulton County Jail. Floyd, unlike the other defendants, turned himself in without a lawyer or bond agreement on August 24. He was not released until August 30 after his lawyer negotiated a $100,000 bond,” the outlet added.
He’s also facing felony charges for allegedly assaulting two FBI agents who were attempting to serve him a grand jury subpoena.
In his ruling regarding Willis, McAfee did give Trump’s legal team some good news, ruling that Willis must either fire special prosecutor Nathan Wade or withdraw from the case against former President Donald Trump.
Willis hired Wade to assist in the prosecution of the case, but four co-defendants claimed that she had an “improper” relationship with Wade. The co-defendants argued that Wade’s hiring by Willis was financially advantageous for him because, at the time of Wade’s hiring in 2021, they were already dating and would go on vacation together.
MSNBC’s Lisa Rubin broke down how bad McAfee’s findings were for Willis and her team:
“We have a decision from Judge Scott McAfee of the Fulton County Superior Court. In a 23-page decision this morning, he finds that there is not an actual conflict of interest that was proven by the defendants here, but he also finds that there is significant appearance of impropriety that infects the entire current structure of the prosecution team,” she reported.
“Therefore, he gives Fani Willis a choice. She can either choose to remove herself and her entire office from the prosecution of this case, or she can determine that Nathan Wade, the special assistant district attorney who has been helming the leadership of this case, can himself be removed from the case, which would allow her and the remainder of the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office to go forward,” she continued.
“There is plenty here for the Trump folks to exploit,” Rubin added. “In particular, [McAfee] finds that there was a failure to be as completely honest with the tribunal as these folks should have been. The quote that is really sticking in my mind right now is when he talks about the testimony of Nathan Wade and Fani Willis.
“He basically says that, ‘They did not put concerns raised by the defendants to rest, that while the defendants did not prove that there was an actual conflict of interest and meet their burden of proof, an odor of mendacity remains,'” she noted.
