After a Friday hearing on whether or not Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade need to be removed for having a romantic relationship, Judge Scott McAfee may already have reached his decision.
Upon finishing, McAfee stated that he would reach a decision within the next two weeks according to Newsweek.
BREAKING: Judge Scott McAfee indicates he may be ready to make a decision in the disqualification of Fani Willis without additional evidence. pic.twitter.com/zl0JhpHKYi
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) March 1, 2024
Notably, former President Donald Trump’s attorneys stated they had more witnesses they wanted to bring forward. Still, Judge McAfee denied them, citing that the defense wouldn’t have the proper chance to examine the evidence.
Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University, told The Hill, “The entire outcome is pretty much contingent on what standard of disqualification he applies.”
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“[The defense] has come up quite short of proving or demonstrating that Fani Willis received a considerable kickback, or anything of that nature, from the prosecution, so if the standard is an actual conflict, I think they have a pretty uphill battle,” Kreis said.
“But if the standard is an appearance of a conflict or an appearance of impropriety — I think it’s possible that the defense has muddied things up enough.”
The nature of the relationship between Willis and Wade showed numerous signs that it may have started before the pair claimed.
Whether it’s the phone logs submitted by the Trump legal team that placed Wade in Willis’ neighborhood frequently, or the statement from Terrence Bradley, an ex-law partner of Willis who claimed the relationship “absolutely” started before Wade was hired.
Will Fani Willis be disqualified from this case?
Willis has spent the trial largely on the defensive, having to repeatedly fight against new evidence submitted against her while bringing forth far less proof herself.
Trump made comments on Saturday about the ongoing case, pointing to potential flaws in the story between Wade and Willis while urging for the case to be dropped.
“In any event, they were lovers and friends long before this Witch Hunt was started,” the GOP frontrunner wrote. “THEY WANTED MONEY AND FAME! Worked with Biden’s DOJ (spent days with them in D.C.) in going after Crooked Joe’s Opponent, ME. Terrible stuff! THIS CASE MUST BE DROPPED — A GREAT EMBARRASSMENT TO GEORGIA!”
Speculation of what the decision will be has already begun as McAfee has suggested that rather than removing the pair from the case, a more appropriate punishment would be disciplinary action by the state bar, per CNN.
Former federal prosecutor Elie Honig said that Willis is facing a “really close call” on whether or not she will be disqualified from the case, Newsweek reported.
Until McAfee states his decision, the public can only speculate as to what Willis may face in the future.
