OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Judge Scott McAfee’s decision to allow Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue working on her case against former President Donald Trump contained seven potentially career-ending lines, according to CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig.
Honig pointed out that the language in McAfee’s decision on Friday was extremely damaging to Willis’s reputation, even though Willis had submitted earlier in the morning that the decision was “pretty close to the best” that he could have expected.
“So if I’m the D.A., I’m taking this as a win. It is a win, she has survived. That is the most important thing here; I’d be breathing a sigh of relief. But Sara earlier said there’s some bruising involved — wow, is there some bruising,” began Honig. “Let me just give you the seven, I think, most severe lines. And these are really serious findings by the judge about the D.A. and these are all verbatim from the opinion.”
He continued: “First of all, there is a, quote, ‘significant appearance of impropriety that infects the prosecution team.’ Second, ‘a tremendous lack in judgment.’ Third, ‘the unprofessional manner of the D.A.’s testimony.” Fourth, “the odor of mendacity remains.’ I Googled mendacity, it means lying. Fifth, the legally improper speech that was made in the church that Laura just talked about, ‘legally improper with the effect to cast racial aspersions on the defendants.’ Sixth, the D. A. has ‘created dangerous waters for the D.A. to wade further into.’ And finally, and I think this is the most damning, “there are reasonable questions about whether the D.A. testified untruthfully.”
“Any one of these statements by a judge would be a career ender for a normal prosecutor,” declared Honig. “To have an on the record finding that there are reasonable questions about whether you lied under oath? That would be devastating.”
“‘One of you has to go, either the D.A. or the entire office, or Nathan Wade.’ This will be the easiest decision that D.A.’s office has ever had to make. Obviously, Nathan Wade will go and the judge in his ruling says, essentially, this is necessary to preserve public confidence in this case. He says there‘s enough of an appearance, there‘s enough of — as he says, at one point — an odor of mendacity around this case — interesting phrase — that something‘s got to be done to at least clean up the public,“ Honig added.
WATCH:
Judge McAfee has decided that District Attorney Willis must either fire special prosecutor Nathan Wade or withdraw from the case against Trump.
Following the presentation of evidence by the attorneys representing the co-defendants in the far-reaching 2020 election interference case, Judge McAfee rendered the decision.
Willis hired Nathan 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 claimed 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.
Before Willis’s employment, Wade and Willis denied being in a romantic relationship.
The pair said they would divide the expenses of their joint travels, with Willis paying Wade back in cash for her portion of the trips.
