On Sunday, Fox News legal analyst Jonathan Turley broke down Fani Willis’ testimony in a misconduct hearing connected to her election racketeering prosecution against former President Donald Trump. News broke in January that Willis had a secret romantic relationship with external prosecutor, Nathan Wade, prompting the hearing and possibly compromising the case against Trump.
Turley, a George Washington University law professor, did not hold back against Willis after her appearances in court last Thursday and Friday.
“The astonishing thing about this is that you have two prosecutors who stand accused of filing false statements in court,” said Turley. “Mr. Wade is accused of answering interrogatories falsely. And Willis is accused of making false statements in her own filings. That’s what they’re prosecuting defendants in the case for.”
“My question is, will he refer these two to the bar? There are allegations of false statements being filed. Their testimony did not help in that respect. And so will this judge say, ‘Look, I’m going to suggest that one or both of you remove yourselves or maybe even order it, but I am also going to ask the bar to look into these allegations’?”
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Last month’s legal disclosures unearthed a tangled web of personal connections between Willis and external prosecutor, Nathan Wade, brought to light in a document submitted by Michael Roman, a past operative of the Trump campaign embroiled in the Georgia election controversy. The duo confirmed their liaison in a court document this February.
Attorneys representing Roman and other implicated parties have pushed to remove the involved prosecutors from the proceedings, anchoring their plea on alleged financial entanglements. They said that since joining the case in 2021, Wade has pocketed upwards of almost $700,000, a portion of which funded leisurely escapes with Willis.
Willis maintained that travel expenses were equally split between them, however, negating any financial conflict and asserting the irrelevance of their relationship to the case and her professional judgment. Trump, along with 18 co-defendants, was indicted last August on charges including racketeering linked to alleged efforts to overturn the presidential election outcomes across several pivotal states.
Unfortunately for Willis, even legal analysts at CNN were piling on with assessments that only underscored how poorly she performed in court.
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For several excruciating minutes, Willis and defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant clashed over her claims that she keeps up to $15,000 in cash at her household at all times, using large sums to reimburse Wade for travel put on taxpayer-funded debit cards while conveniently not leaving a paper trail of receipts.
The hearing got so out of hand that Judge Scott McAfee called a five-minute recess to let both sides cool down. When they returned, he asked both attorneys to stop “talking over one another” and warned Willis, “We have to listen to the questions as asked … and if this happens again and again, I’m going to have no choice but to strike your testimony.”
The hearing, which has become a focal point for critics of the prosecution, explored the intricate details of Willis’ personal connections and how they might affect her capacity to lead a case with enormous implications for the 2024 presidential election.
