Why Fani Willis remains the 'only one positioned' to prosecute Trump election trial: legal expert

17 March 2024

On Friday, March 15 in Georgia, Judge Scott McAfee handed down his anxiously awaited ruling on Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' election interference/RICO case against 2024 GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and a long list of co-defendants.

McAfee ruled that Willis can remain on the case and that her relationship with fellow prosecutor Nathan Wade did not rise to the level of a full-fledged conflict of interest. Yet McAfee was highly critical of Willis, stressing that her conduct showed the appearance of impropriety.

Wade, after the judge's ruling, stepped down from the case.

Kimberly Wehle, a law professor and former federal prosecutor, offers legal analysis of McAfee's ruling in an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on March 15.

"The defendants' claim was that Wade had an incentive to rack up more hours to take home a bigger paycheck, and that Willis was also motivated by that arrangement because it meant more trips for her on the Georgia taxpayers' dime," Wehle explains. "McAfee rejected these arguments both as a matter of law and fact. Prosecutors can date each other and work on the same case without an actual conflict of interest, he reasoned, and although nobody kept an accounting of who paid what, the evidence suggested that at the end of the day, Willis may only still owe Wade a few hundred bucks."

Wehle adds, "What’s more, the judge wrote, Willis has been doggedly pursuing the case and asking for a quick trial date over the defendants' objection, including Trump. If she meant to drag it out for more vacation dollars, it would translate into delays in the prosecution. The legal test for an actual conflict of interest was accordingly not satisfied."

The former federal prosecutor notes, however, that McAfee also voice some major criticisms of Willis, using language like "odor of mendacity" and "unprofessional." Yet Wehle, a scathing Trump critic, is glad to see the case going forward and points out that Willis knows the case well.

"Trump must go to trial in Georgia, and Willis is the only one positioned to do it," Wehle argues. "Meanwhile, McAfee handled this difficult mess admirably. For anyone who assumes that American courts are always playing politics, he proved them wrong. No one, he emphasized, is above the law."

Kimberly Wehle's full article for The Bulwark is available at this link.

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