'Smell of desperation': Legal experts slam Republicans trying to derail Fani Willis

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30 August 2023

Why Trump should brace for 'much more serious charges' in Georgia probe: author

Warning of possible violence and "civil war," an allegation of "Nazism," and calling to pass laws and hold hearings, Republican lawmakers at the state and federal level are working to delegitimize, derail, discipline, or defund Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her prosecution of Donald Trump and his 18 co-defendants. Some legal experts are calling it "dangerous," and "a recipe for constitutional crisis."

“Do you want a civil war? I don't want a civil war. I don't want to have to draw my rifle," Georgia Republican state Senator Colton Moore told Steve Bannon, as Raw Story reported (video below). "I want to make this problem go away with my legislative means of doing so, and the first step to getting that done is defunding Fani Willis of any Georgia tax dollars."

Moore added, “it's just like Nazi Germany. I mean, they want to call us the Nazis and their actions are Nazism."

Moore is not alone.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports the "Republican-led effort to reprimand District Attorney Fani Willis after she brought charges against former President Donald Trump in Fulton County is poised to expand, as state and federal lawmakers pursue new efforts to sanction the prosecutor."

"State Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch said in an interview that Republican leaders could hold legislative hearings into whether Willis is using 'her position in a political manner' after accusing Trump and his allies of a complex conspiracy."

Trump and his co-defendants are all charged with racketeering, or RICO, related to alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which Willis calls a "criminal enterprise." Trump faces 13 charges, as does his former attorney Rudy Giuliani. Other defendants face a variety of charges.

“We believe she is definitely tainted,” Gooch says of Willis. “She’s politicizing this, and we want to make sure these people get a fair trial and a fair shake.”

He told the AJC "that he sees Senate Bill 92, a new law that empowers a state panel to investigate and oust wayward prosecutors, as a powerful 'tool in the toolbox' that Trump’s allies can deploy to delve into Willis’ use of public resources."

U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA), known for wearing an assault rifle lapel pin, co-sponsoring the federal vigilante "Don’t Say Gay" bill, and calling the January 6 insurrection a "normal tourist visit," now "wants to use an upcoming appropriations bill to slash federal funding for Willis, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and federal special counsel Jack Smith. Each is a top prosecutor in one of the four cases Trump is currently facing."

Georgia Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene "is among the GOP members who urged the House Judiciary Committee to launch an investigation into how much her office receives in federal dollars and whether it has interacted with White House officials," the AJC also reports.

Legal experts are waving the red flag.

"It's the smell of desperation: attacking prosecutors when a defendant has no defense to stand on," says professor of law Joyce Vance, the well-known MSNBC legal analyst former U.S. Attorney. "But in Georgia, it's being taken to new and dangerous levels. Impossible to view this as anything other than an effort by Georgia GOP to place Trump above the law."

MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin adds, "GA legislators are now openly and loudly discussing how to punish Fani Willis. Why? Because she dared to come for the king."

"Keep your eyes on how they deploy SB 92 once October comes," Rubin adds.

Georgia Public Broadcasting has called SB 92 the "divisive district attorney oversight bill," which "would create a commission with power to remove district attorneys."

Criminal law professor Carissa Byrne Hessick, pointing to that new law, writes: "Publicly stating that your new commission to discipline and remove prosecutors is an easier way to interfere in the Trump prosecution doesn’t seem like it will help your side of the pending constitutional litigation over that commission."

Professor of law at the Georgia State University College of Law, Anthony Michael Kreis, says: "To be clear: Three institutions and three juries determined crimes may have happened here: the January 6th Committee, the United States DOJ, a federal grand jury, the Fulton DA, and two Fulton County grand juries— plus a federal court ruling on the crime-fraud exception."

He continues, warning: "If, despite that, legislators believe DA Willis should be removed for malfeasance, then they’re simply arguing to replace home rule with their own political judgment. That’s not countenanced by the Georgia Constitution or the rule of law. It’s a recipe for constitutional crisis."

Watch the video below at this link.

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