A Georgia judge slammed Fulton County DA Fani Willis for her “tremendous lapse in judgment” and “impropriety” over her affair with prosecutor Nathan Wade – but has allowed her to continue prosecuting the election fraud case against Donald Trump.
“The established record now highlights a significant appearance of impropriety that infects the current structure of the prosecution team,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee wrote of the revelations related to Willis and Wade’s months-long relationship.
McAfee found the defense ultimately failed to demonstrate Willis’ had a conflict of interest in the case by employing boyfriend Wade, but made a point of strongly criticizing her decision to be involved with the attorney.
“This finding is by no means an indication that the Court condones this tremendous lapse in judgment or the unprofessional manner of the District Attorney’s testimony during the evidentiary hearing,” the judge wrote in a particularly scathing section.
McAfee gave the state two options: Either Willis could step down from the case, or – the more likely scenario – Wade could remove himself as special prosecutor, which would allow the embattled DA to stay on.
There are still “reasonable questions” about the timing of Willis and Wade’s affair that could not be settled by either party’s testimony, McAfee pointed out.
The defense – led by attorneys Ashleigh Merchant and Steve Sadow – charged that Willis became involved with Wade before she appointed him special prosecutor in the election case in 2021.
Text messages between Merchant and Terrence Bradley, Wade’s former law partner and one-time divorce attorney, even suggested the affair started as early as October 2019.
Former DA’s office employee Robin Yeartie – who claimed to have been one of Willis’ confidants – also got on the stand to say she had “no doubt” the pair was involved two years before Wade’s appointment.
Both Willis and Wade, however, maintained that they only became romantically involved in 2022.
In his decision, McAfee called Bradley’s wishy-washy testimony “too brittle” to settle the case on.
The allegations against Willis also included that she financially benefited from hiring Wade because he used some of the over $600,000 he earned in the position to bring her on luxury vacations.
McAfee reasoned the defense failed to fully demonstrate how Willis may have reaped the benefits of her paramour’s job.
But the judge’s lack of confidence in Willis and Wade’s timelines “further underpin the finding of an appearance of impropriety and the need to make proportional efforts to cure it,” he wrote.
Part of the defense’s argument during the two days of testimony also included complaints about comments Willis made at a church shortly after the allegations about the affair came to light.
Willis’ tirade – in which she accused the defense of “playing the race card” against her and Wade – was “legally improper,” McAfee noted.
“Providing this type of public comment creates dangerous waters for the District Attorney to wade further into,” he cautioned.
Legal experts pointed out McAfee’s ruling reflected a drawn between his legal opinion and his disappointment with Willis and Wade’s conduct.
“He does go out of his way to highlight that he believes she made bad decisions and that he believes her conduct on the witness stand was unbecoming of her position and that he believes that Mr. Wade lied in his divorce proceedings about the relationship,” Georgia-based defense attorney and former prosecutor Keith Johnson told The Post.
“The DA is firmly on notice that any additional mishaps and missteps will come back to haunt her severely,” Georgia State University law professor Anthony Kreis added.
“She really is now on heightened alert and she needs to button things up on her end but at the end of the day the case will go on,” he opined.
Shortly after the decision was released, Trump’s attorney Steve Sadow argued that the court “did not afford appropriate significance to the prosecutorial misconduct of Willis and Wade, including the financial benefits, testifying untruthfully about when their personal relationship began.”
He vowed to continued to fight the ongoing prosecution against his client and the co-defendants.