Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers have responded to the government’s request to have Fulton County DA Fani Willis (D) removed from the Georgia RICO case or, at the very least, the indictment thrown out.
They say Willis’s “calculated and egregious” misconduct during a speech in January at a Black church in Atlanta “falsely” called Trump and his co-defendants “racists” and showed her bias, which disqualifies her.
The Trump team said in a Monday filing in the Georgia Court of Appeals that Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee didn’t go far enough in March when he said that either Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor with whom Willis vacationed and had a relationship from 2022 to 2023.
The DA and her office had to step aside from the case because there was a “significant appearance of impropriety.” This caused Wade to quickly leave his job.
The appellant says McAfee’s decision, which did not find a “actual” conflict of interest, was “utterly insufficient” because of Willis’ “unethical, racially charged” words in January when he defended Wade at Big Bethel A.M.E. Church right before Martin Luther King Jr. Day. These words “demanded disqualification.”
Willis said in a speech on January 14 that she was “a little confused” but not really about why Wade, a Black man, was the only one of the three special prosecutors she chose to be questioned by “they” and “them,” who she called were “playing the race card.”
“I had the right to do so and chose three special counsels.” They were all paid the same amount per hour. They only attack one. I hired one white woman who is a great lawyer and a good friend. It was a celebrity, I tell you. I hired one white man who was smart, my friend, and a great lawyer.
I also hired one black man. Still another star, a great friend, and a great lawyer. God, they’re going to be mad when I tell them they’re wrong. They said right away, “Oh, she’s going to play the race card now.” Oh no, God! Aren’t they the ones using race as an excuse when they only question one?”
When McAfee told Willis and Wade that one of them had to go, he said, “I cannot find that this speech crossed the line to the point where the Defendants have been denied the opportunity for a fundamentally fair trial.”
However, he did criticize Willis for saying things that were “legally improper” and “creating dangerous waters for the District Attorney to wade further into.”
He pointed out that she said those things just days after Trump co-defendant Mike Roman moved to disqualify her, a motion that at least eight others would join, including Trump. The judge also told Willis that the District Attorney’s evidence during the evidentiary hearing was “unprofessional.”
It was the state’s argument that Willis’ words didn’t matter because they “didn’t express any personal opinions regarding a defendant’s guilt or discuss the actual substance of the present case at all,” didn’t “mention any Defendant by name,” and didn’t prejudice a jury because there isn’t one.
But Trump’s response on Monday said that the DA made “insidious, calculated references to President Trump and the other defendants,” that she “knew what she was doing” when she did so, and that she got “exactly” what she wanted.
The reply said, “Overwhelming media coverage of her false and harmful scheme would smear the defendants in front of the whole nation.” “Willis came up with this result even though it was her job to protect the innocent until proven guilty, due process, and a fair trial.”
The filing also said that the prosecutor’s speech violated Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct 3.8(g), which says that a prosecutor “shall… except for statements that are necessary to inform the public of the nature and extent of the prosecutor’s action and that serve a legitimate law enforcement purpose, refrain from making extrajudicial comments that have a substantial likelihood of heightening public condemnation of the accused.” This speech did not follow these rules.
The reply said, “Willis wrongly called defendants and their lawyers racists: that’s as “severe” as it gets.”
In his response, Trump called the state’s response “nonsense” and said that Willis “intentionally injecting false racist claims in a Black church” just blocks away from where Martin Luther King, Jr. lived. He said this was the “extrajudicial commentary that makes the DA’s disqualification” a legal must.
As long as the prosecutor doesn’t say “the defendant is guilty,” the filing said, “the State says that a prosecutor can do and say anything, no matter how false, unethical, or widely reported it is, because time is a sufficient cure for harm.”
“The State says this Court can’t punish the prosecutor who broke the rules and says it has to ignore the intentional ethical violations, false claims of racism, and claims to be “doing God’s work” because the case won’t be tried for a while.” “Not true.”
Steve Sadow, the lead lawyer for Trump, told Law&Crime that Willis’ “incendiary racial rhetoric” has been bad for her cause.
“President Trump’s lawyers have filed a reply brief with the Georgia Court of Appeals that strongly disagrees with the State’s arguments.” “The brief makes it clear that DA Willis should be removed from the case and her credentials should be revoked because her proven false.
Offensive racial rhetoric in the church speech was meant to make people hate the defendants more, which would make potential jurors less likely to find them guilty,” Sadow said. “Such bad behavior violated the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct. For that reason, President Trump once again calls for her to be fired and removed.”