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☆ Georgia Court Will Hear Appeal of Ruling That Kept Prosecutor on Trump Case
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-08 | by ( Richard Fausset | More About Richard Fausset | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Georgia Court of Appeals will hear an appeal of a ruling that allowed Fani T. Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, to continue leading the prosecution of former President Donald J. Trump on charges related to election interference, the court announced on Wednesday. The decision to hear the appeal, handed down by a three-judge panel, is likely to further delay the Georgia criminal case against Mr. Trump and 14 of his allies, making it less likely that the case will go to trial before the November election. The terse three-sentence announcement reopens the possibility that Ms. Willis could be disqualified from the biggest case of her career, and one of the most significant state criminal cases in the nation’s history. At issue is a romantic relationship she had with Nathan Wade, a lawyer she hired to handle the prosecution of Mr. Trump. Defense lawyers argued that the relationship amounted to an untenable conflict of interest, and that Ms. Willis and her entire office should be removed from the case.

Persons: Fani, Willis, Donald J, Trump, Nathan Wade Organizations: Trump . Defense Locations: Georgia, Fulton County

Asked for proof of his claim that Mr. Biden was personally directing the local cases against him, Mr. Trump pointed to purported ties between prosecutors and “Washington,” but provided no evidence that Mr. Biden had been involved in any of the hiring decisions, conversations or meetings that Mr. Trump cited. The writer E. Jean Carroll filed her first lawsuit against Mr. Trump in November 2019, accusing him of defamation. Faulty and irrelevant comparisonsWhat Mr. Trump Said“I got indicted more than Al Capone.”— in a rally in Ohio in MarchFalse. Mr. Hur described Mr. Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” who had “diminished faculties and faulty memory.” He did not declare Mr. Biden mentally incompetent to stand trial. Inaccurate attacks on judgesWhat Mr. Trump Said“Judge Juan Merchan is totally compromised, and should be removed from this TRUMP Non-Case immediately.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, President Biden, Trump’s, ”, Trump Said “ Biden, General Merrick B, Garland, Trump “, Biden, Mr, Doug Mills, Trump Said, Jack Smith, Merrick Garland’s, Fani Willis, Letitia James, Alvin L, Bragg, Matthew Colangelo, Colangelo, —, James’s, Colangelo’s, Bragg ramped, Willis, Willis — Nathan J, Wade, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Kamala Harris, Harris, Crooked Joe Biden, James, Jean Carroll, Smith, Brittainy Newman, Alexei Navalny, Navalny, Letitia James ’, Hunt, PolitiFact, Trump Said “, Al Capone, Capone, Brad Schwartz, Hillary, Bill, Bush, Reagan, Hillary Clinton, Clinton, Bill Clinton’s, Taylor Branch, Branch, “, Barack Obama, George W, Bill Clinton, George H.W, Ronald Reagan, Robert K, Hur, Biden’s, Juan Merchan, Loren, Loren Merchan, Merchan, Merchan’s, Justice Merchan, Ahmed Gaber, Arthur F, Justice Engoron, Engoron Organizations: New York, Democratic Party, Trump, Justice Department, The New York Times, The, White House, Trump . Credit, New York Times, American People, Biden Administration, Prosecutors, Mr, Manhattan, Washington, Fox News, New, Times, White, Counsel’s Office, Supreme, Black, Trump Organization, Democrat, Companies, Exxon Mobil, Trump Foundation, Trump University, Associated, National Archives, Records Administration, TRUMP, Twitter, Credit Locations: Manhattan, Georgia, Trump ., Washington, New York, “ Washington, Fulton County ,, Russian, New, Ohio, Fla, South Carolina, Trump’s Florida, Beach

For much of this year, the high-profile case took a detour as Mr. Trump and his co-defendants sought to disqualify Ms. Willis, claiming that her romantic relationship with Nathan J. But last month, Judge Scott McAfee of Fulton Superior Court ruled that an actual conflict of interest did not exist. He allowed Ms. Willis to keep the case, though only if Mr. Wade stepped aside to resolve an “appearance of impropriety.” Mr. Wade resigned after the ruling. Lawyers for Mr. Trump and other defendants have asked the Georgia Court of Appeals to reverse the decision. The court, which leans conservative, has until mid-May to decide whether to take up the matter.

Persons: Willis, Donald J, Trump, Nathan J, Wade, Scott McAfee, Mr Organizations: Trump, Fulton Superior Court, Mr Locations: Fulton County ,, Fulton, Georgia

☆ Trump and Allies Appeal Ruling That Allowed Georgia Prosecutor to Keep Case
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-29 | by ( Richard Fausset | Danny Hakim | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump and eight of his co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case asked an appeals court on Friday to take up their challenge of a judge’s ruling that allowed the prosecutor Fani T. Willis to stay on the case. With their application to appeal, the defendants are once again pressing their argument that Ms. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, created an untenable conflict of interest by having a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case. The presiding judge in the criminal case, Scott McAfee of Fulton County Superior Court, had already given the defendants permission to pursue their appeal after he ruled against the efforts to disqualify Ms. Willis. But under Georgia law, the co-defendants must also secure the approval of the Georgia Court of Appeals before the matter can be heard by a panel of three appellate judges.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Fani, Willis, Scott McAfee Organizations: Fulton County Superior Court Locations: Georgia, Fulton County

☆ Ruling Expected Friday on Effort to Disqualify Trump Prosecutors in Georgia
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Danny Hakim | Richard Fausset | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A judge is expected to rule on Friday on the effort by former President Donald J. Trump and his co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case to disqualify Fani T. Willis, the prosecutor overseeing it. The disqualification effort began more than two months ago, when a defense lawyer said in a court filing that Ms. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, had engaged in a romantic relationship with Nathan J. Wade, the lawyer she hired to run the case. Ms. Willis acknowledged the relationship several weeks after the defense filing, and later testified that the relationship ended last summer. She and her team have sharply rebutted the idea that a conflict ever existed.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Fani, Willis, Nathan J, Wade, Ms Locations: Georgia, Fulton County

The ruling was not related to a defense effort to disqualify Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Ga., who is leading the case. Count 5 concerned a call that Mr. Trump made to David Ralston, who was then the speaker of the Georgia House. During that conversation Mr. Trump pressed Mr. Ralston to call a special legislative session to appoint new electors. Mr. Trump and his former personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, had faced the most charges, at 13 apiece. They include Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, and John Eastman, a legal architect of the plot to deploy fake electors in swing states that Mr. Trump lost.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Scott McAfee, Fani, Willis, “, importuned, Brad Raffensperger, ”, McAfee, Steven H, Count, Raffensperger, Joseph R, Biden, David Ralston, Ralston, Rudolph W, Giuliani, Mark Meadows, John Eastman, Ray Smith III, Robert Cheeley, Anthony Michael Kreis, Kreis, Donald Trump, ” Norman Eisen, Eisen, Smith’s, Don Samuel, Ray Smith, Brian Kemp of, Nathan Wade Organizations: Fulton Superior Court, Prosecutors, Count, Trump, White House, Georgia State University, Act . Defense, Gov, Republican Locations: Atlanta, Georgia, Fulton, Fulton County ,, Brian Kemp of Georgia

☆ What We Know About the Relationship Between the Trump Prosecutors
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Richard Fausset | Danny Hakim | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Merchant said that Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade, whom she hired to manage the Trump case, had been “profiting personally from this prosecution” at taxpayers’ expense. Merchant also said that Mr. Wade was underqualified, and argued that the entire indictment should be dismissed. A torrent of court filings followed, as did a number of dramatic, televised public hearings that had little to do with the indictment charging Mr. Trump and some of his allies with conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss. Defense lawyers argued that Ms. Willis had engaged in “self-dealing” by hiring Mr. Wade to manage the Trump prosecution, and then going on vacations with him that he paid for, at least in part. Defense lawyers also accused Mr. Wade and Ms. Willis of lying to the court about some details of their relationship, including when it began.

Persons: Fani, Willis, Nathan J, Wade, Ashleigh Merchant, Michael Roman, Donald J, Trump’s, Merchant, Mr, underqualified, Trump, Willis of Organizations: Trump Locations: Fulton County, Georgia

☆ Takeaways From the Ruling on Georgia Trump Prosecutor’s Conduct
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Danny Hakim | Richard Fausset | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The much-anticipated ruling on whether Fani T. Willis should be disqualified from prosecuting former President Donald J. Trump and 14 of his allies in Georgia came on Friday, requiring her to make an unusual decision. Wade, a former boyfriend, withdraws from the case, which she hired him to manage. For much of this year, headlines and hearings delving into the romantic relationship between the two prosecutors have overshadowed the case itself, in which the defendants are charged with conspiring to thwart the will of Georgia voters after Mr. Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. Defense lawyers brought to light the relationship between the prosecutors, saying it had created an untenable conflict of interest. But Judge Scott McAfee of Fulton Superior Court rejected that argument on Friday, while sharply criticizing Ms. Willis for a “tremendous lapse in judgment.”

Persons: Willis, Donald J, Trump, Nathan J, Wade, Scott McAfee, ” Organizations: Fulton Superior Court Locations: Georgia, Fulton County ,, Fulton

☆ Fani Willis Hangs Onto Trump Case, but More Turbulence Lies Ahead
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Richard Fausset | Danny Hakim | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After revelations of Fani T. Willis’s romance with a subordinate sent the Georgia criminal case against Donald J. Trump down a two-month detour worthy of a soap opera, a judge’s ruling on Friday resolved a major cliffhanger. Ms. Willis could continue prosecuting the case, so long as her ex-boyfriend withdrew from it. Wade, whom Ms. Willis hired as a special prosector, only settled so much. A fresh and complicated array of problems lies ahead for Ms. Willis, and for one of the most significant state criminal cases in American history. “Her troubles are far from over,” Clark D. Cunningham, a law professor and ethics specialist at Georgia State University, said in an email on Friday.

Persons: Fani, Donald J, Trump, Willis, Nathan J, Wade, “, ” Clark D, Cunningham, Biden, Judge Scott McAfee Organizations: Georgia State University, Mr Locations: Georgia, Fulton County

☆ Highlights of the Judge’s Decision in the Georgia Trump Case
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Charlie Savage | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A judge overseeing the criminal election interference case against former President Donald J. Trump in Georgia declined on Friday to disqualify the district attorney leading the prosecution, Fani T. Willis, over a romantic relationship she had with the lawyer she hired to manage the case, Nathan J. But even as the judge, Scott McAfee of Fulton County Superior Court, rejected the claim by one of Mr. Trump’s co-defendants, Mike Roman, that the relationship raised an actual conflict of interest by giving Ms. Willis a financial stake in the case, the judge also ruled that it raised “a significant appearance of impropriety.”The judge gave her two choices: either Mr. Wade leaves her prosecution team, or she and her office must step aside from the case.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Fani, Willis, Nathan J, Wade, Scott McAfee, Trump’s, Mike Roman Organizations: Fulton County Superior Court Locations: Georgia, Fulton County

☆ Read Nathan Wade’s Resignation Letter
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Fani T. Willis District Attorney SUSIRG JUDICIAL CIRCU OFFICE OF THE FULTON COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY ATLANTA JUDICIAL CIRCUIT 136 PRYOR STREET SW, 3RD FLOOR ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30303 Nathan J. Building 25, Suite 100 Atlanta, GA 30339 March 15, 2024 TELEPHONE 404-612-4639 Dear Mr. Wade: I received your resignation letter dated March 15, 2024, and I accept it, effective immediately. You were the one who had the courage to accept the role, even though you did not seek it. You led a team that secured a true bill of indictment against nineteen individuals who are accused of violating Georgia law to undermine the 2020 election for the former President of the United States. You have successfully litigated in the United States District Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to ensure that Fulton County citizens will be the jurors who decide justice in this case.

Persons: Nathan J, Wade, Campbell, Mr, Georgia's Organizations: Willis, COUNTY DISTRICT, of Columbia, United States, Court, Appeals, Eleventh Circuit Locations: ATLANTA, ATLANTA , GEORGIA, S.E, Atlanta, Georgia, United States, Fulton County

☆ Judge Rules D.A. Can Stay on Trump Georgia Case With Ex-Boyfriend Stepping Down
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Richard Fausset | Danny Hakim | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

An Atlanta judge ruled on Friday that Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, could continue leading the election interference prosecution of former President Donald J. Trump and his allies in Georgia, but only if her former romantic partner, Nathan J. The highly anticipated ruling by Judge Scott McAfee of Fulton Superior Court cut a middle path between removing Ms. Willis for a conflict of interest, which defense lawyers had sought, and her full vindication. The judge sharply criticized Ms. Willis for dating Mr. Wade, whom she hired as a special prosecutor on the case, calling it a “tremendous lapse in judgment.”Hours after the ruling, Ms. Willis said that Mr. Wade had offered his resignation, and that she had accepted it. Judge McAfee had rejected a defense claim that the relationship had raised an actual conflict of interest by giving Ms. Willis a financial stake in the case. But he found that it had raised “a significant appearance of impropriety” that needed to be addressed.

Persons: Willis, Donald J, Trump, Nathan J, Wade, Judge Scott McAfee, ”, Judge McAfee Organizations: Fulton Superior Locations: Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia, Fulton

☆ How Revelations of a Prosecutors’ Romance Upended the Georgia Trump Case
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( The New York Times | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Merchant, a lawyer for one of the defendants in the Georgia election interference case, charges in a court filing that Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, engaged in a “clandestine” relationship with Nathan J. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ms. Willis says racism is a factor in the scrutiny of her hiring of Mr. Wade. An affidavit from Mr. Wade asserts that the romantic relationship started only after he was hired. A former friend of Ms. Willis, Robin Bryant-Yeartie, says she has “no doubt” the two started a romantic relationship earlier than they have said. But Mr. Wade, testifying for several hours, firmly denies Ms. Bryant-Yeartie’s claim.

Persons: Ashleigh B, Willis, Nathan J, Wade, Martin Luther King Jr, Ms, Trump, Robin Bryant, Yeartie, Bryant Locations: Georgia, Fulton County, Atlanta

In a surprise move on Wednesday, a judge in Atlanta quashed six of the charges against former President Donald J. Trump and his allies in the sprawling Georgia election interference case, including one related to a call that Mr. Trump made to pressure Georgia’s secretary of state in early January 2021. The judge, Scott McAfee of Fulton Superior Court, left intact the rest of the racketeering indictment, which initially included 41 counts. The ruling was not related to a defense effort to disqualify Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Ga., who is leading the case. The nine-page ruling on Wednesday took aim at charges asserting that Mr. Trump and other defendants had solicited public officials to break the law. For example, one count against Mr. Trump said that he “unlawfully solicited, requested and importuned” the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to violate his oath of office by decertifying the election.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Scott McAfee, Fani, Willis, “, importuned, Brad Raffensperger Organizations: Fulton Superior Court Locations: Atlanta, Georgia, Fulton, Fulton County ,

☆ For This Rookie Judge, a Pivotal Decision Looms in the Georgia Trump Case
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( Danny Hakim | Richard Fausset | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For Judge Scott McAfee, it was probably an awkward moment. At a hearing in Atlanta last month, he issued a warning to his former boss, Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, during her combative turn on the witness stand. Ms. Willis, who was fighting allegations that threatened her grip on the election interference case against former President Donald J. Trump, had grown so irritated with a defense lawyer that she began expressing her frustration directly to the judge. “I’m going to have to caution you,” the soft-spoken Judge McAfee, of Fulton County Superior Court, told her in response. Legal experts generally agree that Ms. Willis used poor judgment in paying a romantic partner public funds while he was also at least partly paying for vacations they took together — the basis for the defense argument that she engaged in “self-dealing.”

Persons: Scott McAfee, Fani, Willis, Donald J, Trump, “ I’m, McAfee, ” Ms, Willis’s, Judge McAfee, Nathan Wade, ” Organizations: Fulton County Superior Court Locations: Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia

Mr. Trump met with Ms. Riley’s parents before taking the stage, and the Trump campaign distributed signs at the rally with Ms. Riley’s photograph. At one point, Mr. Trump slurred his words and pretended to stutter in a mocking imitation of the president, who has dealt with a stutter since childhood. It was one of several such attacks Mr. Trump lobbed during the event. Mr. Trump called Ms. Willis “corrupt,” referring to allegations that she benefited financially after becoming romantically involved with a lawyer whom she hired on the case. “Perfect phone call,” Mr. Trump said, “other than we challenged the honesty of this election.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Biden’s, Joe Biden, ”, Mr, Biden, Laken Riley, ” Mr, Riley’s, Trump’s, Riley, “ Joe Biden, Megyn Kelly, Jeff Zucker, Fani, Willis, Willis “, “, Maggie Haberman Organizations: Saturday, stoke, Republican, Trump, Mr, State, NBC Locations: Biden’s, Rome, Georgia, United States, Venezuelan, South America, America, New York

☆ Election Updates: Biden and Trump kick off the general election campaign in the battleground state of Georgia.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-09 | by ( Chris Cameron | Peter Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump will both campaign in Georgia today, kicking off their likely general-election battle for a state that Mr. Biden won by a tiny margin in 2020. Mr. Trump will hold a rally in Rome, a city of about 38,000 people in the state’s deeply conservative northwest. Vice President Kamala Harris will also campaign on Saturday in Nevada, a battleground state that she and Mr. Biden won in 2020. Mr. Biden beat Mr. Trump in Georgia in 2020 by just 11,779 votes. In Mr. Trump’s vast effort to deny Mr. Biden his electoral victory, he devoted particular attention to the state.

Persons: Biden, Donald J, Trump, Kamala Harris, Mr, Willis Organizations: Mr Locations: Georgia, Rome, Atlanta, Fulton, Jail, Nevada, Fulton County, American

☆ Lawyers Offer New Witness in Effort to Disqualify Trump Prosecutors in Georgia
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Richard Fausset | Danny Hakim | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Defense lawyers in the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald J. Trump say they want to put someone on the stand whose testimony could back up their assertion that Terrence Bradley, a witness in their effort to disqualify the prosecutors running the case, gave misleading testimony. The new information comes from Cindi Lee Yeager, a deputy district attorney in neighboring Cobb County, Ga., whom the defense lawyers said they spoke to on Friday about conversations she has had with Mr. Bradley. At issue is a key matter in the disqualification effort: the timing of the romantic relationship that developed between Fani T. Willis, who as the Fulton County district attorney is leading the prosecution of Mr. Trump, and Nathan Wade, the Atlanta-area lawyer she hired to manage the case. Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade have said that a romance developed between them after she hired him in November 2021. But the defense lawyers have tried to prove the romantic relationship started earlier.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Terrence Bradley, Cindi Lee Yeager, Bradley, Willis, Nathan Wade, Mr, Wade Locations: Georgia, Cobb County ,, Fulton County, Atlanta

☆ Prosecution of Trump in Georgia Hangs in Balance at Hearing
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Richard Fausset | Danny Hakim | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The presiding judge, Scott McAfee of Fulton County Superior Court, is not likely to rule on the matter on Friday. Details of her personal life have been spilled out in the Atlanta courthouse where she had hoped to put Mr. Trump and 14 co-defendants on trial as soon as this summer. The stakes are high: If Ms. Willis is disqualified from the case, her entire office would be, too, and the case would probably be turned over to a district attorney from another jurisdiction. The new prosecutor could choose to continue the case as planned, modify the charges or drop them. Disqualification would reduce the chances that a trial would begin before the November presidential election, in which Mr. Trump is expected to be the Republican nominee.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Willis, Scott McAfee, Rather Organizations: Fulton County Superior Court, Republican Locations: Georgia, Fulton County, Atlanta

☆ Texts Show Witness Readily Helped Build a Case to Disqualify Trump Prosecutors
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Richard Fausset | Danny Hakim | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Terrence Bradley, an Atlanta-area lawyer, had been billed as the star witness in the effort to disqualify Fani T. Willis, the district attorney leading the election interference case against former President Donald J. Trump in Georgia. But when Mr. Bradley took the stand this week — and twice earlier this month — he was a deeply reluctant witness. His testimony did little to resolve a question at the heart of the defense’s attempt to show that Ms. Willis had an untenable conflict of interest: Whether the romantic relationship between Ms. Willis and Nathan Wade, the lawyer she hired to help run the Trump case, began before or after he joined her staff. But hundreds of text messages obtained by The New York Times show that Mr. Bradley, a former law partner and friend of Mr. Wade, helped a defense lawyer to expose the relationship between the two prosecutors. The texts reveal that Mr. Bradley, who served for a time as Mr. Wade’s divorce lawyer until the two men had a bitter falling-out, assisted the effort to reveal the romance and provide details about it for at least four months — countering the impression he left on the witness stand that he had known next to nothing about the romance.

Persons: Terrence Bradley, Fani, Willis, Donald J, Trump, Bradley, Nathan Wade, Mr, Wade, Wade’s Organizations: Trump, The New York Times Locations: Atlanta, Georgia

☆ Testimony to Resume as Trump and Georgia Co-Defendants Seek D.A.’s Removal
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-27 | by ( Richard Fausset | Danny Hakim | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The judge overseeing the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald J. Trump has ordered a key witness back to the stand, as the judge weighs whether Fani T. Willis, the prosecutor who brought the case, has a disqualifying conflict of interest. The witness is Terrence Bradley, the former divorce lawyer and law partner of Nathan Wade, whom Ms. Willis hired to manage the Trump case. The ruling on Monday by Judge Scott McAfee of Fulton County Superior Court is a victory for Mr. Trump and his 14 co-defendants, as they seek to have Ms. Willis, Mr. Wade and Ms. Willis’s entire office removed from the high-stakes case. The defense questioned Mr. Bradley during a court hearing earlier this month, in an attempt to find out whether Mr. Wade and Ms. Willis were being truthful about key details of a romantic relationship that developed between them, including their assertion that the romance began after Mr. Wade began working for Ms. Willis in November 2021. Mr. Bradley declined at that time to answer questions related to what he knew about the romance, citing attorney-client privilege and other rules that shield lawyers from having to disclose communications with clients.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Willis, Terrence Bradley, Nathan Wade, Judge Scott McAfee, Mr, Wade, Willis’s, Bradley Organizations: Fulton County Superior, Mr Locations: Georgia, Fulton County

☆ Trump’s Georgia Lawyers Surface Phone Records in Effort to Remove Prosecutors
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-23 | by ( Richard Fausset | Danny Hakim | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The records also showed that the two exchanged roughly 12,000 text messages over that period. There is no dispute that Mr. Wade and Ms. Willis were in contact in 2021. She also consulted with Mr. Wade on a number of issues, including strategic questions about big cases, after taking office in January 2021. His advisory role extended into the period covered by the cellphone data that Mr. Trump’s new motion cites, Jan. 1, 2021 to Nov. 30, 2021. Roy Barnes of Georgia, an experienced trial lawyer, recalled that Ms. Willis and a team that included Mr. Wade met with him in October 2021 and asked if he wanted to take the job that Ms. Willis eventually gave to Mr. Wade.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Willis, Nathan Wade, Wade, Roy Barnes, Ms Organizations: Fani Locations: Georgia, Atlanta, Fulton County, Roy Barnes of Georgia

At some point in the coming weeks or months, the Georgia criminal case against former President Donald J. Trump and his allies will presumably focus once again on the defendants and whether they conspired to overturn Mr. Trump’s election loss there in 2020. Now it is unclear whether the case will even remain with Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, since lawyers for Mr. Trump and other defendants are seeking to have her entire office disqualified. The controversy has also provided fresh fodder for Mr. Trump and his allies, who are adept at exploiting their opponents’ vulnerabilities. Mr. Trump was already making inflammatory attacks on Ms. Willis even before her relationship with Nathan J. Wade, the lawyer she hired to help run the election interference case, came to light.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Fani, Willis, Nathan J, Wade Organizations: Mr, Georgia Senate Locations: Georgia, Fulton County

In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. Skandalakis said that he could ask a prosecutor to take on the Trump case voluntarily. Mr. Skandalakis said he could also try to find a lawyer in private practice to replace Ms. Willis. Mr. Skandalakis, a Republican, could also theoretically choose to appoint himself as the new prosecutor. No replacement prosecutor has been named. This week, Mr. Skandalakis declined to say how quickly he would be able to find a replacement for Ms. Willis in the Trump case, if it were necessary.

Persons: Fani, Willis, Donald J, Trump, Scott McAfee, Pete Skandalakis, Skandalakis, Burt Jones, Jones Organizations: ’, of, Republican, Georgia Democrats, Trump Locations: Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia, of Georgia, United States, DeKalb, Cobb

☆ Willis Prepares to Take Witness Stand for Second Day in Trump Georgia Case
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-16 | by ( Anna Betts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, will take the witness stand for a second day of questioning Friday morning as a hearing continues over whether her romantic relationship with the special prosecutor in the Georgia election interference case presents a conflict of interest. In the hearing, which will resume at 9 a.m., the defense is seeking to disqualify Ms. Willis and Nathan Wade, the prosecutor she hired to run the case against former President Donald J. Trump and his allies, accusing Ms. Willis of benefiting financially from the relationship. The argument has been pressed primarily by Ashleigh Merchant, the lawyer for Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign official and a co-defendant in the case. Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade have acknowledged that they had a romantic relationship but said it had begun after he was hired on the case and that neither person had profited from it. Ms. Willis is set to face questions from lawyers on the district attorney’s legal team and possibly the defense, and both sides said they intended to call several more witnesses to the stand.

Persons: Willis, Nathan Wade, Donald J, Trump, Ms, Ashleigh Merchant, Michael Roman, Mr, Wade Organizations: Trump Locations: Fulton County, Georgia

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