Why Fani Willis may actually prevail in this hearing: Philip Holloway
Attorney Philip Holloway provides legal insight into Fulton County DA Fani Willis' testimony on 'Special Report.'
Whatever goodwill Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had with people who do not have strong feelings either way about Donald Trump was squandered in an Atlanta courtroom by Willis's absurd and embarrassing spectacle of unprofessional and childish behavior by someone who is supposed to be a professional, fair-minded prosecutor.
Rather than acknowledging she used bad judgment in having an affair with her special prosecutor, she put on the cloak of righteous indignation. Rather than concede that she got caught with her hand in the cookie jar, she picked a courtroom fight with a lawyer who is simply defending her client as the Constitution requires.
Although she claimed otherwise, Willis entered the courtroom obviously agitated and gave the impression she had been watching the testimony of her paramour and "special prosecutor" Nathan Wade. She was visibly angry when she suddenly abandoned her objection to giving testimony.
Willis did herself no favors in the court of public opinion when she gave non-responsive answers to simple questions posed by defense attorneys. Willis did herself no favors when she forced the judge to repeatedly admonish her to rein in her repeated outbursts from the witness stand.
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There’s much for Willis to be embarrassed by. A former employee testified that Willis and Wade’s affair began long before she took office -- thus implying Willis lied to the court. She traveled to Belize with Wade, but she did not know what continent it is on. She testified she took out a large amount of money on her first campaign, and kept some of that cash (whatever that means, it sounds bad). Willis said she was unaware she is obligated to disclose any gifts or personal relationships with people doing business with the county. And the list goes on.
But the biggest embarrassment for Fani Willis is the cash. The big issue that the defense needed to prove is that Willis was personally enriched financially by virtue of Wade having paid for luxury travel, including Caribbean cruises and trips to Napa wine country.
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And here is the big embarrassment: Willis and Wade testified in lockstep with each other that Willis reimbursed her lover in cash. Untraceable, undocumented cold hard cash.
Fani Willis is either a terrible witness or a brilliant witness, depending on how you see things. But she is likely to nevertheless prevail on this issue. Why? Because the judge may be stuck with her claim she repaid Wade in cash.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis testifies during a hearing at the Fulton County Courthouse on Feb. 15, 2024, in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer-Pool/Getty Images)
Willis and Wade are not out of the woods yet, however. There are still the issues of whether either or both have lied to the court about when their affair began and whether there has been other prosecutorial misconduct by virtue of a multitude of extrajudicial public comments that allegedly were made to deny a fair trial to the defendants.
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It's too soon to know if the Fulton RICO case will collapse under the weight of the host of ethical claims brought by the remaining defendants, but one thing is certain: The prosecution will be playing defense for the foreseeable future.
DA Willis is facing tough questions from the Fulton Board of Commissioners about whether she spends her allocated budget as she claimed she would. And let’s not forget the Georgia Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives are both exploring whether she misused tax or grant dollars to pursue a politically motivated prosecution.
And finally, if the claims are true that Willis or Wade lied to the court about the nature and origins of the affair, the court can take disciplinary action, as could the State Bar of Georgia. Lawyers in Georgia can be disbarred for lying to a court.