So Fani Willis has acknowledged a relationship with Wade. Not sure how this will play out. My phone is not letting me share a gift link to NYTimes but should be available elsewhere.
It shouldn’t matter, but it will; the only question is how much it will matter? So i have to ask the universe: WHAT WAS SHE THINKING??!! She is smart and disciplined, she had to realize they’d try to weaponize her relationship in order to throw more bullshit at the wall to try to derail and delay the trial.
ETA in case the above link is paywalled
Fani Willis’ filing confirms the relationship with Nathan Wade but says she shouldn’t be disqualified from Georgia Trump election interference case.
I’m clearly missing something. When I was a public defender, there were more than a few relationships among lawyers n the prosecutor’s office. It was good gossip, but I never saw a reason to run to court about it.
Ah, but you weren’t a scared man-child with 90+ criminal indictments looking for anything to point at and call foul. I assume.
True, but I don’t get the argument they’re trying to make. How does this relationship invalidate (even in theory) the prosecution? If she was sleeping with the Judge, sure. But these two are on the same team. Who cares what they do?
It’s dirt. That’s how he has always operated. Find dirt, use it to pressure. It’s also about how MAGA always thinks they just need to find that one secret trick to make everything bad go away and force reality to bend to their will. That if you just knock over the correct domino then everything you hate falls away and all of your problems are solved. It’s complete bullshit, but its what the base has been programmed to expect. It’s permission for them to ignore everything about the case and anything the lying media says about it.
The allegation was made that Willis was benefitting financially from Wade’s participation in the case – e.g. that he was paying for their vacations with the taxpayer money he was receiving because of her. Potentially, this could create a conflict between her financial interests and her duty as an officer of the court to see justice done. For instance, she might pursue dilatory motions or reject settlement offers out-of-hand so as to increase Wade’s billable hours. That has an impact on Trump.
I don’t think there’s a very strong argument that it unfairly prejudiced Trump’s case, but I do think it’s ethically dubious.
This AP article I think hints at what the Trump team was attempting to establish.
But he also said that he had never lived with Willis or shared a financial account or household expenses with her. He said that none of the funds paid to him as part of the job have been shared with Willis, an attempt to undercut defense lawyer claims of a conflict of interest.
I think there was an attempt to show there was a conflict of interest if he was brought on to the job and then shared some of the money back with her.
For example, I’m a state employee. Let’s say there was some IT project I was involved with and we needed to hire a contractor. My wife has SharePoint skills, so let’s say I got her hired to use her SharePoint experience. She might make a lot of money as a contractor, more than I make as a state employee, and I’d benefit as her spouse since we have the same expenses.
If they never had that sort of relationship, where their finances are intertwined, then that counters any claims of a financial conflict of interest.
ETA: Partially ninja’d.
I could see a chain of events that looked bad for her:
- They started dating.
- She hired him at a salary meaningfully higher than what he was previously earning.
- He paid for meaningful gifts for her after being hired.
- She didn’t pay for similar gifts for him after being hired.
If every single one of those facts are proven, then it looks like she’s corruptly benefiting from the office: she’s using her power of the purse to covertly pay herself more than she’s entitled to be paid, by funneling some of the funds through her boyfriend.
But if any of them aren’t true, then I don’t see where there’s a case.
If there IS a case, it should be for prosecuting her, not for dropping her case against anyone else.
That’s being disputed. From the AP article:
“At times,” Wade said, “I have made and purchased travel for District Attorney Willis and myself from my personal funds. At other times District Attorney Willis has made and purchased travel for she and I from her personal funds.”
If it really was disproportionate, say she treated him to McDonald’s and he bought her a BMW, I get that. If it was fairly reciprocal, there may not be a case.
I think this is why a lot of places have conflict of interest rules that would prevent Willis from doing what she did. Where I work, for example, we often have spouses and family members working at the same agency, but they can’t be in the same chain of command where one supervises another. At the same time, I’ve worked directly for my dad in two different jobs, and it was never weird. (At work I was his employee, outside of work I was his son, and we kept it professional.)
With the DA usually being such a political position, it seems like it would be a really good idea to try to avoid this sort of thing.
from what i’ve read. Fani Willis acknowledges a ‘personal relationship’ with prosecutor she hired in Trump’s Georgia case (msn.com)
-
she hired him at a rate that is within the norms.
-
they started dating after his hire.
In an affidavit accompanying the filing, Wade said that in 2022, he and the district attorney had developed a personal relationship in addition to their “professional association and friendship. -
they each shared expenses and she attached receipts.
But he also said that he had never lived with Willis or shared a financial account or household expenses with her. He said that none of the funds paid to him as part of the job have been shared with Willis, an attempt to undercut defense lawyer claims of a conflict of interest.
Willis Wade response - DocumentCloud 176 pp filing.
I’m still missing how this taints the prosecution’s case. Honestly, I don’t see what the concern is even as a separate violation of the DA’s code of ethics.
Unless there was some ridiculous quid pro quo (“I’ll hire you, you won’t have to do any work, but you have to take me on some expensive vacations”), which I find very hard to believe, I’m with Procrustus. People who work together sometimes get into a relationship. So what?
agreed.
So then…
That’s reversed. I’m not sure how much that matters, but at least she didn’t hire her boyfriend or whatever.
MAGA always looks for the magic bullet that “proves them right about everything”. This is supposed to be their current magic bullet, no matter how little sense it actually makes.
an interesting tidbit from pg 8:
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 Janna Ellis are married law partners, working together and representing
Defendant Ellis throughout these proceedings.
wade’s usual compensation is 550 an hour.
-
In the Spring of 2021, District Attorney Willis asked me and two other attorneys to
assist her in looking for a competent, trustworthy attorney to manage and lead the
investigation of possible attempts to interfere with the administration of the 2020
election. District Attorney Willis was able to offer no more than $250 per hour, with
a capped number of hours monthly. That hourly rate was significantly less than the
market rate for experienced lawyers in the Atlanta metro area, and less than the
billing rate for first-year associates at many large law firms. My previous rate when
working for a governmental entity was $550 per hour. The District Attorney’s Office
was offering less than half of the rate a governmental agency had previously paid
me. -
In October of 2021, upon further consideration of the unique professional challenge
this case presented, I agreed to serve as a special prosecutor on the case. I first
had to officially resign from my judicial appointments. -
In November 2021, I contracted to be a special prosecutor in the Fulton County
2020 election interference case. The case is extremely complex, and my role has
included management of a team of prosecutors and investigators undertaking the
investigation, Special Purpose Grand Jury process, and indictment. -
As special prosecutor, the case required the vast majority of my time, as is reflected
on submitted invoices. In many instances, I documented work performed that
would have exceeded my contractual cap and did not request or receive payment
from the County for that work. See Ex. 3 (Invoices).
I already addressed this.
She can’t delay the case to trump’s detriment: he has a constitutional right to demand a speedy trial. He’s the one seeking to delay.
And he has no right to a settlement. The DA can reject any offers other than a plea of guilty and a full confession in open court.
So, no, any improper relationship (not that I think there is anything improper; the law is a very professionally incestuous profession) does not imperil trump or deny him justice. At worst, it’s a political scandal about how public money is being spent.
rocking_chair’s post right before yours seem to defenestrate that idea from the top floor of whatever it is they call the Sears Tower these days.
And the idea that it’s a “conflict of interest” is ridiculous, because their “interests” with regards to the prosecution are fully aligned, so there’s no point of conflict.
A conflict of interest would be a relationship with someone working for the judge or the defense, or with a witness. For example, if two of the defense lawyers working for different clients were having a relationship (as has been alleged), that would be a conflict of interest, because the interests of the two defendants are not guaranteed to be fully aligned……one defendant might be considering flipping on the other one and might seek advice from their attorney, and that advice might be tainted and not fully representative of the best interests of that defendant.
But that’s not the case with Willis and Wade, they are both fully aligned with the goal of convicting all of defendants. And I suspect that’s one of the reasons for this stunt (the other being delay). They are just looking to paint an unsavory picture of two people of color so worked up and excited by the prospect of “getting Trump” that they couldn’t restrain themselves. It’s disgusting.
The dollar amounts in question are ridiculously low in comparison to what Trump and his PAC’s dish out for legal fees every single day… I saw an RW media article that tried to inspire outrage at Wade’s law firm billing $6000 in one day……which actually sounds pretty normal for a long day with another associate or several paralegals.
And I don’t know if this has been mentioned upthread, according to the ABC News show I watched earlier this evening, Willis and Wade weren’t in a relationship when she hired him, the relationship started after they’d been working together for about a year.
Okay, so, the well-established maxim “if the Trump team says it, it’s bullshit” remains unsullied.