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Post by Webster on Mar 1, 2024 19:26:07 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Mar 1, 2024 19:27:13 GMT -5
(The Guardian) A key question before Judge Scott McAfee is what standard he should use to determine if Fani Willis should be disqualified. Lawyers for the defense argued that the appearance of a conflict of interest was enough to disqualify Willis. Adam Abbate, a lawyer in Willis’s office, said on Friday: Not a single shred of evidence was produced through the exhibits or any testimony showing how their due process rights or constitutional rights were violated by the relationship that began in March 2022. There has been absolutely no evidence the district attorney has benefitted financially at all.Adam Abbate, representing Willis, said that Georgia law was clear in saying an actual conflict had to exist. “They must show an actual conflict,” he said. Experts say state law has long established this high bar to clear and the defendants in the case have not done so, but McAfee seemed somewhat skeptical on Friday that the appearance of a conflict wouldn’t be enough. A disqualification would upend the case and delay it past the 2024 election. The Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, a state agency, would have the sole discretion to reassign the case to another prosecutor, and there’s no timeline for how long that could take. Pressed by McAfee, Ashleigh Merchant, a lawyer for Michael Roman, struggled to articulate what exactly Willis’s personal interest in the case was. “I think you know it when you see it,” he said.
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Post by Webster on Mar 13, 2024 14:01:17 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Judge dismisses some charges against Trump in Georgia election caseThe judge overseeing the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump and his allies has thrown out some of the charges against the former president and several of his co-defendants, but many other counts in the indictment remain. The Fulton County superior court judge Scott McAfee ruled that six of the counts in the 41-count indictment must be quashed, including three against Trump. But the order leaves intact other charges, and the judge wrote that prosecutors could seek a new indictment on the charges he dismissed.
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Post by Webster on Mar 15, 2024 16:22:49 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Judge rules Fani Willis can stay on Trump Georgia election case - if deputy goesA judge has ruled that the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, should not be disqualified from prosecuting the racketeering case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants. Fulton county superior court judge Scott McAfee ruled that Willis can continue leading the prosecution of Trump and his allies in Georgia, but only if her former romantic partner, Nathan Wade, withdraws as the lead prosecutor of the case. McAfee found there was no “actual conflict” brought about by the relationship between Willis and Wade, but that the “appearance of impropriety” should result in either Willis and her office leaving the case, or Wade. The judge added: Without sufficient evidence that the District Attorney acquired a personal stake in the prosecution, or that her financial arrangements had any impact on the case, the Defendants’ claims of an actual conflict must be denied.
A judge in Georgia has ruled that the district attorney Fani Willis can continue to head the prosecution of Donald Trump for trying to undermine the 2020 presidential election in the state, as long as a top deputy steps down. The ruling came after hearings that offered a dramatic deviation from the racketeering case against Trump and 14 remaining co-defendants as it investigated Willis’s romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor in the case. The question at the heart of the matter was whether Willis had a conflict of interest in the case because of her relationship with Wade. Michael Roman, one of the 14 remaining defendants in the case, filed a motion in January saying Willis should be disqualified from handling the case because of her romantic relationship with Wade, which was not publicly known at the time. The two eventually admitted their relationship, but said it did not begin until 2022, after Wade was hired to work on the Trump case. Wade acknowledged that he paid for vacations for the two of them to places such as Napa in California and Aruba, but he and Willis both said she paid him back in cash. The hearing dived deeply into the personal lives of Wade and Willis, and featured dramatic testimony from Willis in which she bluntly accused Roman’s lawyers of lying and sought to regain control over one of the most high-stakes trials in the US.
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Post by Webster on Mar 15, 2024 16:23:57 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Judge reproaches Fani Willis for 'tremendous lapse in judgment'In his ruling, Fulton county superior court judge Scott McAfee wrote that district attorney Fani Willis had demonstrated “tremendous lapse in judgment”, noting that even if the romantic relationship between her and Nathan Wade developed after Wade was appointed as special prosecutor in November 2021, Willis “chose to continue supervising and paying Wade while maintaining such a relationship.” -- She further allowed the regular and loose exchange of money between them without any exact or verifiable measure of reconciliation. This lack of a confirmed financial split creates the possibility and appearance that the District Attorney benefited – albeit non-materially – from a contract whose award lay solely within her purview and policing.Georgia law “does not permit the finding of an actual conflict for simply making bad choices – even repeatedly,” McAfee wrote. The judge said he found the “allegations and evidence legally insufficient to support a finding of an actual conflict of interest,” but that there remains an “appearance of impropriety.” -- 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.
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Post by Webster on Mar 15, 2024 16:24:49 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump lawyer to 'use all legal options available' to continue to fight Georgia election caseDonald Trump’s lawyer Steve Sadow has responded to the ruling by Fulton county superior court judge Scott McAfee that Fani Willis can continue to head the Georgia election case. A statement from Sadow, shared by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, reads: While respecting the Court’s decision, we believe that the Court did not afford appropriate significance to the prosecutorial misconduct of Willis and Wade, including the financial benefits, testifying untruthfully about when their personal relationship began, as well as Willis’ extrajudicial MLK ‘church speech,’ where she played the race card and falsely accused the defendants and their counsel of racism. We will use all legal options available as we continue to fight to end this case, which should never have been brought in the first place.
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Post by Webster on Mar 15, 2024 16:26:04 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Scott McAfee, the judge overseeing the racketeering case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants, ruled that the district attorney Fani Willis can continue to head the prosecution of the case, as long as Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor in the case and her top deputy, steps down. He wrote: The court therefore concludes that the prosecution of this case cannot proceed until the state selects one of two options. The district attorney may choose to step aside, along with the whole of her office, and refer the prosecution to the prosecuting attorneys’ council for reassignment.He added that, alternatively, Wade can withdraw, “allowing the district attorney, the defendants, and the public to move forward without his presence or remuneration distracting from and potentially compromising the merits of this case”. Defense lawyers argued that Willis should be disqualified from handling the case because of her romantic relationship with Wade, which was not publicly known at the time. The two eventually admitted their relationship, but said it did not begin until 2022, after Wade was hired to work on the Trump case. Wade acknowledged that he paid for vacations for the two of them to places such as Napa in California and Aruba, but he and Willis both said she paid him back in cash. McAfee said the arrangement presented the appearance of a conflict of interest, which was enough to warrant at least Wade’s removal. The judge added: As the case moves forward, reasonable members of the public could easily be left to wonder whether the financial exchanges have continued resulting in some form of benefit to the district attorney, or even whether the romantic relationship has resumed.
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Post by Webster on Mar 15, 2024 16:27:00 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney, testified at a court hearing last month where she vehemently denied wrongdoing and rebutted accusations that her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade meant she should be disqualified from the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump. Willis testified that her relationship with Wade started months after he was retained to work on the case, charging Trump over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in the state, and ended in summer 2023. The district attorney also sought to undercut allegations that she had engaged in a sort of kickback scheme through Wade’s hiring, as alleged by defense lawyers for a co-defendant of Trump, Michael Roman – in which she benefited from Wade’s earnings. At one point on the stand, an exasperated Willis said to lawyers questioning her: You’ve been intrusive into people’s personal lives. You’re confused. You think I’m on trial. These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. I’m not on trial, no matter how hard you try to put me on trial.
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Post by Webster on Mar 15, 2024 16:30:41 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Fulton county superior court judge Scott McAfee’s decision was the “best ruling” that district attorney Fani Willis could have hoped for, a law professor said. The judge concluded that the facts “do not reveal an actual conflict of interest,” and any appearance of conflict can be easily remedied by removing Nathan Wade as lead prosecutor, Georgia State University’s Anthony Michael Kreis told the New York Times, adding: And even better for Willis, this is unlikely to be disturbed on appeal.Another law professor at Georgia State University, Clark D Cunningham, told the paper that even if Wade steps down as special prosecutor, he believes that Willis’s troubles are “far from over”. Donald Trump and his co-defendants will almost certainly appeal against the ruling, Cunningham said, adding that McAfee’s order gave them plenty of basis to argue that removing Wade isn’t enough to remedy what the judge called “an odor of mendacity”.
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Post by Webster on Mar 15, 2024 16:54:33 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Former US assistant attorney urges Willis to recuse herselfA former justice department prosecutor has called on the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, to recuse herself from the racketeering case against Donald Trump and his allies. Andrew Weissmann, a former assistant US attorney, speaking to MSNBC after Judge Scott McAfee’s decision, said: The key is how to go forward, because clearly Wade is off, but I think that this is such a huge body blow, almost a fatal blow to Fani Willis. I think the way forward is she has to voluntarily recuse herself. I don’t know that she has it in her, but I think she has to say I’m going to appoint a chief assistant who is going to oversee this case. She clearly has no credibility with this judge.
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Post by Webster on Mar 15, 2024 16:55:47 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants, earlier this week dismissed some of the charges in the wide-ranging indictment. The judge dismissed six of the charges in the indictment, including three against Trump, but left in place other counts – including 10 facing the former president. One of the 41 charges Trump and some of the co-defendants in the case were charged with was soliciting officials in Georgia to violate their oath of office. The six defendants who had the charge at issue in the case were Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, John Eastman, Ray Smith and Robert Cheeley. Those charges were dismissed. The ruling on Wednesday dealt a blow for Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis, and marked the first time charges in any of Trump’s four criminal cases have been dismissed.
The Republican senator Lindsey Graham has issued a statement calling the judge’s ruling on Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis “nonsensical” and “bizarre”, adding that it was a “sad day for Georgia”. The statement from Graham, a key ally of Donald Trump, continues: When it comes to the prosecution of President Trump and others in Fulton County, Georgia, politics hangs heavy in the air. The charges brought by Fulton County DA Willis and the bizarre decision by the judge not to remove her for an obvious appearance of impropriety reinforces the narrative that there is a two-tiered system of justice for President Trump and those around him.Graham added that he was “hopeful” that either the Georgia state senate or the state’s attorney general will “look into this matter”.
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Post by Webster on Mar 15, 2024 17:01:35 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, signed a law earlier this week that would make it possible to sanction and remove elected prosecutors, which could potentially disrupt Fani Willis’ prosecution against Donald Trump. Kemp signed legislation last May setting up a statewide Prosecuting Attorneys Statewide Qualifications Commission, a move that was seen as a thinly veiled power grab to push out Democratic prosecutors. In November, the state supreme court refused to approve the rules governing the panel’s conduct, saying there were “grave doubts” it could regulate the duties of district attorneys beyond the practice of law. Georgia state legislators passed a bill in January removing the requirement for supreme court approval. Kemp, speaking before signing the bill on Wednesday, said: This legislation will help us ensure rogue and incompetent prosecutors are held accountable if they refuse to uphold the law.The measure is likely to face renewed legal challenges.
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Post by Webster on Mar 15, 2024 17:05:09 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Lawyer who led disqualification effort against Willis calls ruling a 'vindication'The lawyer who filed the original motion against Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis has called the judge’s ruling “a vindication”. Ashleigh Merchant, who represents Donald Trump’s co-defendant Michael Roman, released the following statement: The judge clearly agreed with the defense that the actions of Willis are a result of her poor judgment and that there is a risk to the future of this case if she doesn’t quickly work to cure her conflict. While we do not agree that the courts suggested cure is adequate in response to the egregious conduct by the district attorney, we look forward to the district attorneys response to the demands by the court.
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Post by Webster on Mar 20, 2024 14:21:55 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Judge allows Trump to appeal ruling keeping Georgia prosecutor on election subversion case – attorneyDonald Trump and some of his co-defendants in the Georgia election subversion case can appeal a ruling that allowed prosecutor Fani Willis to remain on the case, his lawyer announced. Last week, the Fulton county judge Scott McAfee allowed Willis to continue prosecuting Trump and 18 others on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election, rejecting an attempt to remove her for an alleged conflict of interest due to her hiring of the special prosecutor Nathan Wade. However, McAfee said Willis could remain only if Wade resigns – which he did. On X, Steve Sadow, an attorney for Trump, said McAfee has allowed his ruling to be appealed, raising the possibility of further delays in the case:
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Post by Webster on Mar 20, 2024 14:27:22 GMT -5
(The Guardian) One of the biggest questions hanging over the 2024 election is: will any of Donald Trump’s four criminal trials be resolved before the vote? The prospect of the former president being found guilty by a jury is a major source of peril for his chances of returning to the White House – but an exoneration would bolster his claims that he’s being unfairly targeted by prosecutors. But so far, it seems likely that the two federal and two-state level cases remain bogged down in pre-trial motions and appeals – such as the argument in Georgia over whether prosecutor Fani Willis can remain on the case – before the 7 November election day, raising the prospect that none are decided before voters head to the polls. -Read more: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/18/donald-trump-what-how-many-criminal-charges
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