The Fani Willis mess, explained

It ultimately serves as a reminder that the courts can't save us.

Willis takes the stand last Thursday. (Alyssa Pointer/via Getty)

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While Trump continues to face 91 criminal charges and considerable financial liabilities from his losses in civil cases, a significant sideshow has developed in Georgia.

There, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is under fire for a personal relationship with the outside special prosecutor her office hired to help handle the Trump prosecution. It’s a tawdry distraction from the landmark case at hand. 

Trump, along with 18 co-defendants, is charged with being part of a criminal organization in violation of Georgia’s racketeering law, along with other charges including false statements, forgery, witness tampering, and election fraud.

The case was moving along nicely, with four defendants — Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, Scott Hall, and Jenna Ellis — taking plea deals. 

Then, things came to a halt in January when one of Trump’s co-defendants, Michael Roman, filed a motion alleging that Willis had a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, and that Willis had reaped financial rewards because Wade paid for the two of them to take vacations.

Roman, though less well-known than some other defendants, was instrumental in Trump’s scheme to assemble slates of false electors to cast their Electoral College votes for Trump despite Biden having won the state. Roman requested the judge dismiss the indictment entirely, based on these allegations and a more technical argument about whether Willis properly appointed a special prosecutor. Several defendants, including Trump, joined the request. 

Roman’s allegations are both a big deal and a nothingburger. If the judge overseeing the case feels the behavior is bad enough, Willis’s office would be removed from the case — that’s the big deal part. The nothingburger part, though, is that removing Willis from the case likely doesn’t make the case go away.

Fani Willis’s own goal

The allegations against Willis boil down to this: Wade and Willis were already in a romantic relationship when she appointed him special prosecutor despite Wade having a very thin resume. Then, Wade used some of the large payments he has received — $728,000 and counting — to pay for lavish trips with Willis.

Appointing Wade was a stupid move by Willis, who should have avoided even the appearance of impropriety with such a massive case. Willis and Wade have admitted they had a romantic relationship, and Wade also admitted they didn’t tell the rest of the prosecution team about it. It’s this misstep that forms the basis for Roman’s allegations that their conduct violated provisions of the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct. 

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First, Roman said the romantic entanglement created a conflict of interest because Willis now has a financial interest in the case outcome because Wade’s compensation has been used to pay for luxurious vacations for the pair. Roman asserted this violates Rule 1.7 of the Georgia Rules. However, Rule 1.7 refers to conflicts of interest that affect the lawyer’s client, not the case itself or the opposing party. The client here is the citizens of Fulton County, not anyone Willis indicted.

Roman also alleged Willis violated Rule 8.4, which prohibits lawyers from engaging in conduct “involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.” That one is tougher to dismiss. The pair did not disclose their relationship, and Wade's appointment looks to be driven by their personal connection, given that Wade’s legal experience does not reflect the background required to handle the case. Wade has a prosecution background, but mostly in low-level cases. In private practice, he’s mostly handled civil matters, and when he was a part-time judge, he oversaw misdemeanor cases like traffic violations. 

Wade’s billing on the case also looks bad. He has made over $728,000 thus far. As a raw number, that’s not unreasonable on a case this complex, and Wade’s fixed rate is low by experienced lawyer standards — $250/hour. The problem is he made that lofty sum in only two years and did things like bill for 24 hours of work in a single day while providing no detail as to what he did. Besides that it is impossible for Wade to have worked every minute of the day, lawyers are discouraged from this vague billing and instead are usually required to keep time in six-minute increments and detail each task. 

All of this resulted in a two-day hearing on February 15-16 where the judge in the case, Scott McAfee, stated that the only issues for the hearing were whether Willis and Wade had a relationship, whether it was romantic or not, and whether it continues. Further, he explained the relationship status is only relevant insofar as “the question of the existence and extent of any personal benefit conveyed as a result of their relationship.”

How the hearing went depends on what news sources you read. The Hill hyped the hearing, declaring it “explosive” and listing the top five “revelations.” More sober coverage came from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which broke down what new things were learned — and it’s not much.

This was the first time Wade admitted he and Willis didn’t disclose their relationship and the first time anyone knew that the relationship began in early 2022 and ended in summer 2023. The defense team spent a lot of time trying to prove Willis benefited financially from hiring Wade by showing Wade had spent thousands on trips for the pair, but both Wade and Willis pushed back, with Willis testifying that she reimbursed him in cash for the trips. 

The witnesses the defense likely hoped would shine mostly fizzled. Former Fulton County District Attorney’s Office employee Robin Bryant-Yeartie testified that Willis told her the relationship with Wade began in 2020, which would contradict both Willis and Wade’s sworn testimony. Her credibility was somewhat undermined, though, by having to admit there was a “situation” at the DA’s Office where she was told she would be fired if she didn’t resign. 

The defense also called Terrence Bradley, previously a partner in a law firm with Wade and also previously Wade’s divorce attorney. Bradley refused to answer questions about the relationship's timeline, saying it would violate attorney-client privilege given his representation of Wade. Bradley had also previously invoked attorney-client privilege to refuse to say why he left Wade’s firm.

During cross-examination, an attorney for Willis asked Bradley whether the partnership ended because Bradley had been accused of sexually assaulting a client and an employee, which wouldn’t be covered by any sort of privilege. In fact, Judge McAfee said he was “left wondering if Mr. Bradley has been properly interpreting privilege this entire time.” McAfee will meet with Bradley behind closed doors to sort out what Bradley knows and what he is allowed to say. 

Willis created her own unnecessary drama by literally bursting into the courtroom to testify despite her lawyer arguing against it. However, Willis also got off one of the most succinct, forceful lines of the entire hearing: "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."  

Experts think the conflict of interest claim is weak, but even if McAfee rules the case can stay with Willis, this is an own goal for the prosecution.

Though any alleged wrongdoing on Willis’s part is related not to ginning up charges against Trump but rather to ensuring her romantic partner had a lucrative gig at her office, that really doesn’t matter. Her credibility is seriously undermined, regardless of the outcome. Additionally, it gave substantial ammunition to Trump, who is already fundraising off the hearing with an email saying that Willis “hired her lover to go after me and paid him with taxpayer dollars” and that “her corruption is being broadcast live to the whole world.” 

While Trump has been able to attack Willis as a Democrat, assertions that anyone else in this sad tale is in the tank for convicting Trump are incorrect. All evidence points to Wade being a conservative rather than someone dedicated to bringing Republicans down. Judge McAfee is a former prosecutor who was appointed by Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, and is described as having “plenty” of conservative credentials. Of course, that doesn’t matter to conspiracy-minded MAGAs, particularly as Trump has long framed Kemp as a traitor for failing to help him steal the 2020 election.  

Trump will be defeated at the ballot box or not at all

The court adjourned the hearing last Friday afternoon, but the parties will be allowed to make summary arguments late this week or early next week, so it is unlikely McAfee would rule before the end of next week. If he does decide to remove Willis, under Georgia law, the case gets referred to the state’s Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia. The executive director of the Council, Pete Skandalakis — also a Republican — would then be required to appoint a special prosecutor. 

There are a lot of factors at play if Skandalakis has to replace Willis. First, the case is complex and a significant drain on resources. One district attorney said she had been asked if she would consider taking the case but turned it down because she doesn’t have enough prosecutors to handle it, and hiring outside counsel is out of the question for her office, money-wise. Skandalakis can appoint whoever he wants, and theoretically, the district attorney can’t refuse the appointment. Still, it would be best, he said, to find an office that wants the assignment and has the resources. Skandalakis could also keep the case himself. 

No matter what, if the case gets reassigned, expect a significant delay. Whoever takes the case can use the work already done by Fulton County, but, Skandalakis explained, a new office would “have to look at the case as if you’re starting from scratch.” Willis’s office spent over two years getting ready to bring this case, and it is massive. A new office could choose to do more investigative work to bolster Willis’s indictment, or they could decide to throw some or all of it out. Willis could also appeal her disqualification, and Skandalakis has already said he would not appoint a new prosecutor while that appeal was pending. 

Ultimately, all of this is a reminder that the courts can’t save us from Trump. They’re ill-equipped to move swiftly, particularly in complex matters, and it is too easy to gum up the works with multiple motions and appeals. Additionally, the judicial system is made up of fragile and fallible humans like Wade and Willis, and personal choices that seem relatively non-controversial can upend entire cases.

Everyone can hope that even if this Georgia case falls apart, Trump will face justice in his remaining three criminal trials, but the best course of action is also to use the ballot box to make sure he never returns to office.

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That’s it for today

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