Donald Trump reportedly has a secret weapon in his strategy to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis: her alleged secret romance with erstwhile special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
Knewz.com has learned that the former president has presented a petition to the Court of Appeals to review Judge Scott McAfee’s decision to keep Willis as a prosecutor on the Trump case.
Willis prosecuted Trump and 18 co-defendants for the violation of 16 Georgia statutes, including racketeering, in connection to the allegation that Trump tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Apart from citing the alleged romance with Wade, Trump also claimed in his petition that Willis "poisoned the jury pool by making racially charged remarks about the case at a historic Black church at downtown Atlanta on Martin Luther King Jr. Day," according to The New York Sun.
Trump argued in his appeal that "DA Willis has engaged in a pattern of consistently flouting her ethical obligations" since the beginning of the investigations and that her "previous improper conduct was neither inadvertent nor isolated, and was both planned and part of a long-standing, wrongful practice," per the outlet.
He stated that the Fulton County DA should be removed from the case "for intentionally and repeatedly violating ethical and professional canons to prejudice defendants for personal or political gain."
"By persistently untethering herself from the legal, ethical, and professional constraints of her powerful position, [Willis] has decimated the integrity of these proceedings [against Trump]," the former president added in his appeal, per The New York Sun.
Judge McAfee let Willis stay on the case despite finding some of her public remarks "legally improper" and noting a "significant appearance of impropriety" in Willis's behavior, for which Trump accused the Judge of having "abused his discretion."
According to the state law of Georgia, the court of appeals has the authority to review all the aspects of Judge McAfee's decision, which would give Trump an opening to present all his arguments anew.
The law dictates, according to Justia:
"For purposes of review by the appellate court, one or more judgments, rulings, or orders by the trial court held to be erroneous on appeal shall not be deemed to have rendered all subsequent proceedings nugatory; but the appellate court shall in all cases review all judgments, rulings, or orders raised on appeal which may affect the proceedings below and which were rendered subsequent to the first judgment, ruling, or order held erroneous."
The New York Sun noted that if Trump can impeach Willis and Wade's testimony, along with their sworn affidavits, regarding the chronology of their affair through the appeal, "the case for reversing Judge McAfee will grow stronger."
Furthermore, catching the DA and the erstwhile special prosecutor in a fib would undermine their credibility regarding the case.
According to Trump's appeal (via The New York Sun), "Cell records proved that, during the period that Willis and Wade claimed not to be romantically involved, there were 2073 calls and 9792 texts between them—an average of 6.2 calls and 29.3 texts per day."
Trump also cited the trips Willis took with Wade, while he was on the case as a special prosecutor, to locations like Aruba, Belize, and Napa Valley, which Wade's credit card reportedly paid for.
DA Willis had stated that she paid him back with cash she had stored at her home. Trump contested the claim, calling it a "wholly unsupported explanation of cash repayments," and requested the court of appeals to look into it.
While Judge McAfee noted that there is no "ledger" documenting these transactions, he mentioned that Willis's "account was not so incredible as to be inherently unbelievable."
