February 15 may prove to be a crucial, potentially fatal, turning point in the Georgia racketeering case against Donald Trump and multiple indicted co-conspirators. Allegations of potential conflicts of interest stemming from a romantic relationship between Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and an outside attorney she hired to lead the case were made by counsel for one of the defendants. As those allegations have been investigated, conflicts regarding dates of the relationship beginning and ending and the exact nature of the relationship have been identified which were addressed in the courtroom on February 15, 2024. Surprising everyone, Fani Willis chose to take the stand to answer questions directly. Further surprising everyone, Willis was -- frankly -- a DISASTER on the stand.
MSNBC's Ari Melber had defense attorney Manny Arora along with other talking heads on his 2/15 show to provide analysis from the defense perspective on this turn of events. Arora outlined these points:
- FEDERAL prosecutors DECLINED to file charges for these elector falsification schemes in Georgia
- STATE prosecutors OPTED to file charges for these actions
- that STATE prosecution has taken YEARS of work to prepare
- the lawyer who WROTE the Georgia State racketeering law being used in the case is a member of the Fulton County DA staff and could have led this effort
- yet the DA brought in an OUTSIDER to lead the case with zero racketeering case experience
- who is likely to have earned close to $1,000,000 to date in hourly fees
- who turns out to have a romantic relationship with the DA
- and has taken personal trips with the DA
- where the DA paid him for his expenses IN CASH?
With that set of surface-level facts, the underlying facts about actual "intent" of the parties are meaningless. The above chain of superficial facts are enough to take a juror's mind off the core issues in the case and generate doubt about the motivations of prosecutors that needlessly raises the barrier for conviction.
Much of today's testimony fixated on CASH. Apparently, Fani Willis has a personal practice of keeping large sums of cash at home as a 6-month rainy day fund for career and personal upheaval. As her career has ebbed and flowed, she stated that in-home cash stash has ranged from $500 to $15,000. I can see someone lower on the professional ladder growing up with this idea instilled in them which they maintain as an adult. It is much harder to take this at face value for someone savvy enough to become a lawyer, win elected office as District Attorney in a top-50 metro in the United States and pursue one of the most complicated, politically explosive racketeering cases in US history.
So far, just on these SUPERFICIAL facts, this is not a position into which a crucial case like this should ever be put. Fani Willis' testimony and demeanor on the stand today raise serious questions about the viability of her taking this case to trial. She's spent years on this case to date. She KNOWS the defendants and their willingness to adopt ANY and ALL tactics to escape justice. Surely someone able to take this effort this far would have the ability to maintain a wall between the personal and professional, ANTICIPATE such personal attacks and provide a more focused, effective response under oath. NOTHING in Willis' testimony today was focused or effective.
Defense attorney expert Arora at one point said words to this effect: "When the DA prosecuting the case sounds like a typical MAGA advocate - and believe me, I am NOT - or Trump himself on the stand, it does not help their case. When the subject is dealing in CASH, it creates the appearance of possible impropriety which will slow down this case that everyone wants to be completed."
At best, today's events in a Fulton County courtroom amount to an unforced error of massive proportion on a critical criminal case for the entire country. At worst, they contribute significantly to the overal circus atmosphere surrounding anything involving Trump and MAGA extremists which simply feeds into their nihilistic narrative of government and judicial incompetence and "deep state" corruption, making every problem in this area of civic paranoia worse.
WTH
