This morning, Judge Scott McAfee issued his ruling on the motion to disqualify Fani Willis from the Atlanta prosecution of Donald Trump. McAfee ruled that Willis’s romantic relationship with lead prosecutor Nathan Wade did not give rise to an actual financial conflict, but there was an appearance of impropriety that demands a remedy. He was harshly critical of Willis and Wade:
This finding is by no means an indication that the Court condones this tremendous lapse in judgment or the unprofessional manner of the District Attorney’s testimony during the evidentiary hearing.
McAfee ruled that either Willis or Wade has to go, so presumably Wade will resign from the case.
The judge also expressed concern about Willis’s unprofessional statements about the case to the press:
But it was still legally improper. Providing this type of public comment creates dangerous waters for the District Attorney to wade further into. The time may well have arrived for an order preventing the State from mentioning the case in any public forum to prevent prejudicial pretrial publicity, but that is not the motion presently before the Court.
The focus in recent weeks on these collateral matters has diverted attention from the fact that on the merits, Willis’s charges against Donald Trump are weak at best, and do not deserve to go to trial. Which, per the New York Times, is unlikely to happen before the election, which is all Willis and the Democrats care about:
Still, with delays mounting, the case is now unlikely to come to trial before the 2024 presidential election, when Mr. Trump is almost certain to be the Republican nominee.
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