Willis needs to 'level with the public' before scandal derails Trump case: ex-prosecutor

Amid allegations that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Nathan Wade, lead prosecutor on Donald Trump's 2020 election interference case, are romantically tied and "profiting significantly from this prosecution at the expense of the taxpayers," former federal prosecutor Ankush Khardori argues "Willis needs to level with the public, and she needs to do it fast."

In a Wednesday, January 24 Politico Magazine op-ed, Khardori lays out why the way the district attorney has handled the situation so far — addressing Atlanta's Big Bethel AME congregation, and calling the allegations "a racially motivated attack" — are making matters "much worse."

The former Justice Department attorney writes, "At a bare minimum, she owes her constituents and the American public a much more direct and fulsome explanation of the facts than she has provided in the weeks since the allegations emerged. In today’s choose-your-news world, here’s the reality: It’s far too soon for Trump supporters to claim victory, but if you are someone who is eager to see the former president face accountability in a Georgia courtroom for his alleged election subversion, you have good reason to be worried."

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Despite his belief that the filing is "extremely unusual and arguably ran afoul of some serious ethical rules and professional norms," Khadori argues, "Still, one thing that is true of both the law and journalism is that accurate and important information can come from sources that are disreputable or even improperly motivated. That alone does not end the inquiry. We have to do our best to sort through the issues with the information available to us."

He insists that a "key problem for Willis is not the alleged relationship with Wade per se. It is that the relationship provides a plausible motive for the much more serious allegation presented in the motion — that Willis selected an under-qualified prosecutor for personal rather than professional reasons, and that she may have been motivated in part by her knowledge that the financial benefits that would flow to Wade from the Trump prosecution would also flow in part to her."

Moreover, Khardori writes "there are two major problems for Willis here," noting:

The first is that, as the old axiom goes, even the appearance of a conflict of interest is a problem. There may have been no actualconflict of interest on Willis’ part — maybe she would have done everything the exact same way regardless of whether she had an intimate relationship with Wade — but that is not an adequate defense here if it turns out that the allegations are true in their broad strokes. Even the appearance of a conflict of this type risks seriously undermining public confidence in the outcome of the case.

The second major problem with Willis’ handling of this controversy is one that I suspect many current and former prosecutors will recognize right away. When a criminal defendant lodges a serious allegation of impropriety against a prosecutor, the best approach is for the government to address it quickly and directly — even if the allegation is irrelevant, overblown or tendentious.

The former prosecutor adds, "But the best practice — both as a matter of legal strategy and as a matter of fidelity to the public — is to be honest and straightforward, whatever the case and however embarrassing the truth may ultimately be."

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Otherwise, Khardori emphasizes, the allegations "threaten to derail the proceedings temporarily — and perhaps, in a worst-case scenario, even permanently."

Khardori's full op-ed is available at this link.