OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A judge in Georgia previously removed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from a case involving the 2020 election over political bias, a report revealed on Tuesday.
It comes as Willis is facing increasing scrutiny after a court filing earlier this month revealed she is romantically involved with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor she hired to help with her RICO case against former President Donald Trump.
According to NBC News, Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney barred Willis from pursuing a case against Georgia state Sen. Burt Jones, who was a candidate for lieutenant governor at the time. This action came after Willis organized a fundraiser for Democratic candidate Charlie Bailey during his runoff race. McBurney’s ruling cited that Willis’ participation in the fundraiser was deemed “harmful” to the investigation into Jones, who was allegedly linked with other state Republicans in an effort to overturn the 2020 election results using an alternate slate of electors.
McBurney, however, said Willis’ involvement would prompt “entirely reasonable concerns of politically motivated persecution,” according to the outlet.
“Any decision the district attorney makes about Senator Jones in connection with the grand jury investigation is necessarily infected by it,” McBurney ruled, the outlet noted further.
McBurney said that the DA’s donation to a Democrat campaign was not in and of itself disqualifying but noted the donation “added to the weight of the conflict created by the more extensive, direct, public and job-related campaign work the district attorney performed on behalf of candidate Bailey.”
“This choice — which the district attorney was within her rights as an elected official to make — has consequences,” McBurney ruled, according to NBC News. “She had bestowed her office’s imprimatur upon Senator Jones’s opponent.”
Willis had issued subpoenas for Jones and other individuals as part of the investigation, and she was allowed to proceed with her participation in the probe of the other “fake electors.” Additionally, McBurney ruled that another prosecutor would be responsible for bringing charges against Jones.
Over the weekend, the judge on the case she brought against former President Donald Trump on election fraud charges ordered an investigation into her alleged misconduct, that she and her lead prosecutor engaged in an improper relationship and mishandled taxpayer dollars, The Washington Post reported.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said that Willis has until Feb. 2. To respond to the accusations.
This could force the district attorney to have to address the issue in televised court proceedings which could derail her case against Trump and his codefendants and could do significant damage to her political career.
Willis has also filed a motion to block a subpoena that could have her testifying in the divorce case of Wade.
In addition to potentially having an improper relationship with Wade, a report late last week noted that he billed her department for meetings with Biden White House officials, according to court documents, “raising questions” about the administration’s involvement in the case.
Just the News reported that the revelation comes after Wade and Willis came under fire following the court filings after they alleged the two had been engaged in a romantic relationship while her office paid him more than $650,000 in legal fees since January 2022.
The outlet added:
The new information regarding the White House Counsel meeting with Wade also follows previous reports by Just the News that the Biden White House worked to facilitate “special access” for the FBI to 15 boxes of Trump presidential documents that he had returned to the National Archives.
The new court filing, which is part of a Georgia case against Michael Roman, a Trump codefendant, shows that the special prosecutor met on at least one occasion with Biden’s White House Counsel. Wade indicated that this meeting was part of his travel to Athens, Ga., on May 23, 2022, according to an invoice that he submitted to the DA’s office.
“Travel to Athens; Conf with White House Counsel,” the invoice says. Wade billed the DA’s office $2,000 for the trip.
The invoices filed in the lawsuit show at least one other meeting with staff at the Biden White House — on Nov. 18, 2022. That meeting appears to have taken place in Washington, D.C., yet there is no record in the White House visitor logs that Wade was there.
“Interview with DC/White House,” the invoice reads. He also charged $2,000 for that meeting as well.
The meeting in November 2022 took place just three days after Trump formally announced he was running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Just the News reported.
