Fani Willis turns the tables

[struggle4progress]

Published Feb 08, 2024 at 10:38 AM EST

Fani Willis has hit back at those criticizing her over her relationship with a prosecutor ...

"It is worth noting that there are at least two personal relationships among the collection of defense attorneys representing the Defendants that, under the standard urged by the Roman's motion, would almost certainly require disqualification.

"Amanda Clark Palmer, counsel representing Defendant Ray Smith, and Scott Grubman, representing Defendant Kenneth Chesebro, are publicly known to be in a personal relationship. Since Defendant Chesebro has plead guilty and agreed to testify for the State in the upcoming trial against Defendant Smith and the other remaining defendants, one who was illinformed about the standard for attorney disqualification in Georgia might argue that the personal relationship between Clark Palmer and Grubman could rise to the level of a conflict given potential testimony by Grubman's client inculpating Clark Palmer's client.

"That, of course, would be an incorrect conclusion to draw. Similarly, counsel for Defendant Jenna Ellis are married law partners, working together and representing Defendant Ellis throughout these proceedings" ...

https://www.newsweek.com/fani-willis-georgia-complaint-nathan-wade-1868185

[stopdiggin]

1. weak sauce .. - -(nt)-

[50 Shades Of Blue]

2. Your user name is perfect for this post!

There's a big difference between 2 colleagues being in a relationship, and a supervisor/subordinate being in a relationship. Whether it has zero impact on the case or not, it gives ammunition to Trump and his lawyers to use against her, and I can't understand how she wouldn't have foreseen this.

[LymphocyteLover]

4. she's only human... anyway, it really shouldn't matter except for the distraciton factor

[50 Shades Of Blue]

6. She may be only human but she's also in a very highly scrutinized position, and IMO

it doesn't say anything good about her judgment that she had an affair with an underling, without a care as to what kind of impact the news of their affair would have on her highest-of-high profile cases.

[SunSeeker]

23. Do you really think she did it "without a care"?

Come on.

I am sure she wished she had not fallen in love with him, but she did. She's human. I could totally see how it happened. She is in a very stressful situation, working her ass off, and she has this amazing, handsome, brilliant co-counsel supporting her when she needs support the most. Hell, I'd fall in love with him too.

[spooky3]

28. These situations are far more common than a lot of us admit. I've

Known of at least five in my career, despite most people’s wanting to keep them secret, plus a few more where participants later married.

[SunSeeker]

42. Yup!

[50 Shades Of Blue]

47. Even worse if she gave it a lot of thought and did it anyway, risking blowing up the case.

[SunSeeker]

53. How is she risking "blowing up the case"? This is not a basis for dismissing the case.

She no doubt knew this could result in more right wing scorn on her, with the inevitable "slut shaming" talking points. But the comfort she found in his love outweighed that to her, obviously.

[happy feet]

43. Her successful record in bringing, trying and winning cases says everything about her judgement to me

[Ponietz]

8. Okay, except you left out the defense attorneys conflict of interest

The question is whether Willis is upholding her duty to the public. There is no material harm to the defendants.

Whereas, it can be presumed a personal relationship between defense attorneys representing cofendants will interfere with the principal duty each one owes to their client.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

10. Because it's fucking irrelevant. "They did it too!" Is no justification in my book.

Unless you think Trumpers are the ones who should be setting behavior standards.

[Ponietz]

11. Duty to the client is ALL that's relevant here

The public for one side — individual codefendants for the other.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

16. Well, I guess you just told me! Yeah, I'm way less perturbed by the F-word than that Fani Wills

has opened herself to fresh attempts to get herself and her office thrown of the case because of it.

Pretty sad when her defense is that Republicans did it too.

[SunSeeker]

22. What legal basis is there for throwing her off the case?

Can you cite a legal prohibition she violated?

[MarineCombatEngineer]

26. I suspect you're not going to get an answer because there is no legal basis

for removing her and him from the case.
I'm happy to see her hitting back, I knew she would in due time.

[OverBurn]

13. +

[SunSeeker]

9. Willis and Wade are co-counsel on this case.

Wade is an independent contractor. He is a contracted special counsel who acts with the same powers as the DA for purposes of this prosecution. This is not like a boss dating a secretary. This is absolutely analogous to the defense counsel she is referring to.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

12. Wade didn't hire himself. Willis hired him. He doesn't report to himself. He reports to her.

[SunSeeker]

21. The county contracted with him. He does report to himself; he's an independent contractor.

He was contracted to prosecute this one case. By legal definition, an independent contractor is not told how to do his job, he decides how he does the job. When you contract with a painter, you don't tell him how to paint, you just tell him you want your house painted.

Wade shepherded the case through the entire grand jury process, and did it quite well, according to the grand jury itself. He is not some office flunky. He is Willis' co-counsel on this case.

I agree with Willis when she says that the way Wade has been described is not only inaccurate, but racist. It's as if people can't imagine that this black man is a seasoned prosecutor who can do his job without being spoonfed what to do.

[spooky3]

30. Very good points. I also think sexism is involved here. Some people

Are incensed when women do what they are fine with men doing.

[Bev54]

40. I think there may well be some jealousy here with Roman's lawyer who was a big

supporter of Wade's and fawned all over his credentials a few years ago. She seemed a bit too much, wearing a Wade shirt etc. I really think she had a thing for him and perhaps she is jealous of Fani. She knows he was qualified for the job and this seems like a personal hit job that she also thought would help her client.

[Zeitghost]

29. A government employee

Dating a contractor/vendor is just as bad if not worse. She has direct influence over the government contract of someone she is dating, that is a huge conflict of interest.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

31. What LEGAL basis is there for removing her from the case? nt

[Zeitghost]

33. None

But she's sure gave the defense a big and highly avoidable media distraction.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

35. That may be, but I don't think she gives a crap about the media,

she's just going to keep on keeping on.

[spooky3]

36. She's a prosecutor, not a politician. From what I've read

None of this affects her case.

When this story first hit the media (with all kinds of speculation, later shown to be incorrect, eg, the truth was that she hired Wade before their personal relationship began, at a pay rate below what was typical for that level of job), NYT published an article on it. The reader comments (almost exclusively from men, judging from usernames) were very judgmental and negative, with sexist and racist overtones. Probably some were trolls, but I was appalled given that it was NYT readers. Reactions were very similar to those for the Harvard - Dr. Gay story.

[SunSeeker]

41. Nope. The contract was signed months before they started dating.

Their intimate relationship does not change the contract. He was contracted to prosecute the Georgia elections case for $250/ hour, and that remains unchanged.

[Evolve Dammit]

44. Good point. Apparently he doesn't have much RICO experience, but is a good QB?

At least that is what some cable pundits were claiming.

[SunSeeker]

54. Wade really knows his way around a courtroom. That makes him a great QB.

He tried felonies in both state and federal court, he was the first Black man to serve as a municipal judge in the Atlanta suburb of Marrietta, and has taught judicial training classes to new judges in Georgia. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fani-willis-filing-confirms-romantic-relationship-denies-conflict/

Wade is a seasoned trial lawyer and has done excellent work shepherding this complex case through the grand jury process. The grand jury thought he did a great job:

There is one group of Atlantans who have seen Wade demonstrate his legal abilities at great length: the members of the Fulton County Special Purpose Grand Jury, who in the end recommended that Trump and 18 other co-defendants
be charged with election conspiracy. Wade ran the grand jury process for Willis over more than six months, guiding the jurors through hundreds of hours of testimony, thousands of documents and a thicket of legal and evidentiary issues.

Interviews with some of those grand jurors indicate they were impressed with Wade. One member of the panel, the only lawyer among them, told CBS News Wade was "in command" and "highly skilled." The source, who asked not to be identified discussing what occurred inside the grand jury room, described Wade as a deft performer in front of the grand jury.

"He had a lightness of tone when that was appropriate and was very serious when it was time to be serious," the grand juror said.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/fani-willis-trump-2020-election-case-prosecutor-nathan-wade/

That is why he was tapped for the job.

[Evolve Dammit]

55. Thanks much. Good info.

[Zeitghost]

48. She still has direct influence over his contract

And evaluating his work. That's a direct conflict of interest.

This is government ethics 101. You are not supposed to have personal relationships of any kind with those receiving public funds that you control. Even if there is no sign of impropriety, the potential for bias exists and you are supposed to remove yourself from any decisions involving the other person.

[SunSeeker]

49. She is not his supervisor. He is an independent contractor.

Government ethics 101 is that you must not have a financial interest in a contract you are negotiating. That was not the case when Wade signed the contract, and that is not the case now. Willis does not "control" the funds used to pay Wade. He is paid by the county according to the terms of his contract.

[Zeitghost]

50. She is the DA

She supervises every attorney doing prosecutorial work for the County regardless of their employment status as a contractor or employee. She can extend his contract, she can decide to terminate his contract (according to it's terms), etc.

I've sat through conflict of interest training at the state and federal level. I've had to disclose relationships I've had in the industry I regulated in both and if there was any connection at all, I was not allowed to work with those entities, simply to avoid the appearance of a conflict. Even when it was as indirect as my cousin working as an office clerk for a company being inspected.

She absolutely knew the relationship should have been disclosed to avoid the appearance of bias.

[SunSeeker]

52. She is not regulating Wade. They are co-counsel. They're on the same side.

That's completely different from your situation where you were regulating industry, where you are supposed to be on opposite sides. Your situation would be akin to Willis having a cousin on Trump’s defense team.

Again, when he was contracted, they were not in a relationship, other than he was her friend, as were the other two contracted special prosecutors. It was her friendship with these three that convinced them to enter the contract and literally risk their (and their families') lives. That does not present a conflict of interest for Willis.

[homegirl]

34. SOME PEOPLE...

NEVER LEARNED LESSON NUMBER ONE OF THE SCHOOL YARD. If you give it-be prepared to take it!

[LymphocyteLover]

3. awesome-- glad to see her fighting back

[blogslug]

5. hate newsweek

love receipts tho

git em, Fani

[republianmushroom]

7. Thank you, Willis, after that there will be nothing but crickets.

[ificandream]

14. Love the fact she's staying strong.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

15. Keeping my opinion to myself until I hear from Katyal, Kirschner and Weissman

My lawfirm!

[SleeplessinSoCal]

19. Weissman:

Andrew Weissmann, a former federal prosecutor, posted on X, "The new Fani Willis brief, supporting affidavit and exhibits are so powerful you wish the substance was public right after the allegations, so as to nip them in the bud. And unless something changes, this makes the Feb. 15 hearing much ado about nothing, by a desperate defendant."

[SleeplessinSoCal]

20. Glenn Kirschner:

"It's a bad look in the court of public opinion, but it looks like it will be much ado about nothing in the court of law," he said. "Based on what I've reviewed and what I've read, what I've seen. I don't think it will have any impact on the RICO [racketeering] prosecution of Donald Trump and his criminal associates down in Georgia."

[Evolve Dammit]

45. Love those guys!

[Hekate]

17. I am glad to see Fani Willis fighting back. Let's have her back.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

25. All of us in this thread, except for one, do have her back.

[stopdiggin]

37. I too have her back. But it doesn't stop me

from observing what I think to be an "own goal" (unforced error) against the home team - that could have been seen (foreseen) from roughly a mile off.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

38. I certainly didn't mean to imply you didn't have her back, if I came off that way,

I do apologize, and I see your point.

[stopdiggin]

39. no prob. no offense taken. -(nt)-

[judesedit]

18. I read she tried to hire 2 different prosecutors prior to Wade

They refused the position cause they were afraid of Trump's magats retaliation toward them and/or their families.

[SunSeeker]

24. Correct. There aren't a lot of seasoned Atlanta prosecutors willing to risk their life for a temp job.

Serving on this case requires unpending your life and receiving death threats from Trumpanzees on a daily basis. Not an easy ask. Atlanta prosecutors willing to risk their lives are few and far between. That is why Wade was Willis' third choice, after 2 others said no.
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/fani-willis-trump-2020-election-case-prosecutor-nathan-wade/

[Evolve Dammit]

46. That is one very sad reality that seems to be trending. Cult 45.

[Drum]

27. Bookmarking

[Patton French]

32. I really hope that's not the best she's got. NT

[spanone]

51. K&R