Fani Willis shared expenses with the prosecutor in Donald Trump‘s Georgia case and did not use the case to prolong the relationship, her lawyers have said.
Trump’s lawyers have gone to the Georgia Court of Appeals to have the case dismissed or to have Willis removed from the case, based on Willis’ relationship with the prosecutor, Nathan Wade.
Newsweek sought email comment from Trump’s attorney on Thursday.
Nine of Trump’s co-accused, including former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Trump senior aide Mike Roman, have joined in Trump’s appeal.
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Willis, District Attorney for Fulton County, Georgia, which covers most of Atlanta city, indicted Trump, Giuliani and 17 others for alleged fraud in Georgia in the 2020 presidential election. All of the accused pleaded not guilty but at least four are now cooperating with authorities.
On March 15, the trial judge, Scott McAfee, severely criticized Willis for the way she conducted the relationship with Wade and said one of them had to leave the case.
Wade resigned from the case several hours later.
In a court filing on Wednesday, lawyers from Willis’ office strongly rejected Trump’s claims.
They said that McAfee had accepted that Wade had not financially benefited from his relationship with Willis and that he and McAfee had shared expenses while on vacation in Aruba and while on a winery tour in California.
“The trial court accepted her explanations for how she and Wade split costs, her choice to pursue the Appellants’ case, and the pace and manner in which she directed her office to pursue it,” they wrote.
They also claim that it is well established law that appeals courts will not interfere with a trial judge’s dispute resolution except in very rare circumstances.
“As both this Court and the Supreme Court have repeatedly held, Georgia appellate courts will not disturb a trial court’s factual findings on disputed issues outside of certain, very rare, circumstances,” they wrote.
In his lengthy ruling on March 15, McAfee attacked Willis’ tone when she was called before him to testify about the relationship.
While finding that the prosecution of Trump could continue, he added: “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.”
Trump is now asking the Georgia Court of Appeals to dismiss the charges or, if not, to remove Willis from the case.
In their filing to the appeal court, Trump’s lawyers argue that the prosecution should never have been taken and that it is a violation of free speech.
They added that they “believe their arguments are well-founded and fall squarely within the almost absolute First Amendment protections in the context of their core political speech regarding the 2020 Presidential election contest.”
The appeal court has indefinitely paused the prosecution of Trump and his co-accused, pending a review of McAfee’s ruling.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
