Famed author Tom Wolfe, best known for his riveting novels, once said fiction was hard to write because it had to be plausible. But the same cannot be said of the news. Donald Trump's post-presidential legal issues in Georgia alone present a compelling case for this proposition. On February 15 and 16, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her lead counsel against Trump, Nathan Wade, will be subject to judicial scrutiny for misconduct - and things don't look good for the Peach State prosecutors. It seems those trying to hurt Trump may end up helping him instead.
Willis wasted no time using her powers to attempt to criminalize Trump, announcing her investigation of him only three days after being sworn in as prosecutor. Ashleigh Merchant, who represents Trump operative and co-defendant Mike Roman, has now effectively destroyed Willis' and Wade's professional reputations and likely the RICO case Willis filed on August 14, 2023, revealing nuggets a novelist would have to eschew as implausible. Never-Trumpers must be cringing at the prospect of more revelations to come.
Doing Well by Doing Good
Among the most recent scandalous revelations, disclosed at a hearing on February 12, is that multiple billing records are missing. Merchant alleged that Willis has been paying Wade, her lover, at an overly generous rate with taxpayer funds and that Wade used some of the funds, more than $650,000, to take Willis on lavish vacations and trips. Fani Willis said that the allegations against her are race-based and that she paid other white prosecutors the same. However, the county agency responsible for handling the billing told Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee the billing records were missing.
That hearing was a motion to quash, or void, several subpoenas Merchant issued to gather information about Willis and Wade. In a pitch-perfect performance, McAfee demonstrated the best attitude for a judge -- like a mildly friendly robot -- efficiently handling the court's business without a trace of opinion. McAfee, a former federal and state prosecutor, was appointed to the bench by Republican Governor Brian Kemp. The hearing did not go well for the lovebirds famous for prosecuting Trump. Merchant suggested that Wade likely perjured himself by lying about when he started romantic relations with Fani Willis, and McAfee ruled that new hearings were warranted to allow more investigation into prosecutorial misconduct.
Fani Willis for Trump
By the time this process is through, Wade will be lucky to keep his law license. Meanwhile, Merchant delivered Trump a massive propaganda victory that may make Willis' prosecution effectively a Trump campaign contribution.
You have to wonder if Trump's legal team considered trying to convince his Georgia criminal conspiracy co-defendants to keep Willis and Wade attached to the case. Trump might have benefited from a corrupt prosecutor going the distance, rather than being dismissed now, in favor of an ethical one being installed, which is still possible. Willis touted Wade's experience, or rather lack of it, in another filing, comically filled with participation awards instead of respectable credentials. As for the outcome, Judge McAfee could do nothing about it, toss the whole case against Trump and his co-defendants, or something in between.
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