Attorney and legal analyst Jonathan Turley believes a Georgia court might send Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for prosecution in light of newly discovered evidence.
Due to a personal relationship that ended in the summer of 2023, Willis and Nathan Wade—the prosecutor she hired in 2021 to head the racketeering case against former President Donald Trump—have come under scrutiny. There are allegations against Trump and eighteen other defendants that they plotted to thwart Georgia’s election victory for Joe Biden in 2020.
The former president, who is the front-runner for the GOP nomination in the 2024 election, has entered a not-guilty plea to all charges and asserts that the case is politically motivated.
Early in January, Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign staffer and co-defendant in the case, filed claims of a personal relationship between Willis and Wade to disqualify Willis and her team and have his charges dropped. In this case, Roman has entered a not-guilty plea.
To decide whether to disqualify Willis and her office from the case, Chief Judge Scott McAfee held a series of hearings last week.
While on the witness stand, Willis was asked if Wade ever visited her home.
Willis then erupted, saying, “So let’s be clear ’cause you lied in this” while holding up court documents. “It is a lie! It is a lie!”
Turley, a professor at George Washington University Law School who testified during Bill Clinton’s impeachment inquiry in 1998 and at an impeachment hearing for Trump in 2019, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “We are still awaiting a response from Willis so this is only one side. However, it could put Willis’s combative testimony into sharp relief as she declared ‘It’s a lie. It’s a lie’ on the stand.”
In a Friday supplemental brief, Trump’s attorneys requested that McAfee evaluate new evidence, which included an affidavit from a private investigator who examined Wade’s cellphone location data. Turley was making reference to this evidence.
Wade twice arrived at Willis’ house late at night in 2021 and departed early in the morning, once in September and once in November, according to the investigator’s data.
According to Willis and Wade, their romance began in the spring of 2022 when Willis hired Wade.
“If the court believes that Willis and Wade lied on the stand, he could refer the matter for possible prosecution…by some other office. He could also consider a referral to the bar. Once again, the insistence on Willis and Wade that they remain in the case is troubling,” Turley wrote in a follow-up X post.
In another post, he added: “There is clearly a growing appearance of impropriety and possible conflicts of interest. It is clear that they continuation in the matter is undermining not just the integrity of the case but that of their office. While many praised Willis for her combative testimony, it only magnified the concerns for many about the underlying personal motivations and interests in the hiring of Nathan Wade.”
Turley told Newsweek via email on Saturday that Willis and Wade should “step aside” in Trump’s Georgia case, adding that their “problems are escalating.”
“The response of Willis and Wade is now eclipsing the original allegations. They have placed their personal interests before the case and the office. Most importantly, they have allowed those interests to transcend the public interest in the case. They should clearly step aside,” he wrote. “However, there are now alleging of false filings with the court and even perjury. The problems are escalating for both prosecutors.”
Meanwhile, it’s unclear if the Trump team’s new filing will delay or alter McAfee’s pending ruling.
