Submission 3,762

Part of a series on Donald Trump's Georgia Indictment. [View Related Entries]

Such a reimbursement practice may be unusual and the lack of any documentary corroboration understandably concerning. Yet the testimony withstood direct contradiction, was corroborated by other evidence (for example, her payment of airfare for two on the 2022 Miami trip), and was not so incredible as to be inherently unbelievable. However, as the District Attorney herself acknowledged, no ledger exists. Other than a "best guesstimate," there is no way to be certain that expenses were split completely evenly - and the District Attorney may well have received a net benefit of several hundred dollars. Despite this, after considering all the surrounding circumstances, the Court finds that the evidence did not establish the District Attorney's receipt of a material financial benefit as a result of her decision to hire and engage in a romantic relationship Page 7 23SC188947 with Wade. Simply put, the Defendants have not presented sufficient evidence indicating that the expenses were not "roughly divided evenly," or that the District Attorney was, or currently remains, "greatly and pecuniarily interested" in this prosecution. Nichols v. State, 17 Ga. App. at

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee emphasized that prosecutors may refile the charges with greater detail or appeal his ruling. However, McAfee found that as written, the allegations that Donald Trump and several allies solicited Georgia officials to violate their oaths of office - in part by sending false electors to Congress - were too generic. "The lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is ... fatal," McAfee wrote.

The Court's concern is less that the State has failed to allege sufficient conduct of the Defendants in fact it has alleged an abundance. However, the lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned's opinion, fatal. As written, these six counts contain all the essential elements of the crimes but fail to allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of their commission, i.e., the underlying felony solicited. Kimbrough, 300 Ga. at 884. They do not give the Defendants enough information to prepare their defenses intelligently, as the Defendants could have violated the Constitutions and thus the statute in dozens, if not hundreds, of distinct ways. Id. at 882. Under the standards articulated by our appellate courts, the special demurrer must be "The State's supplemental citation to Wiggins v. State, 272 Ga. App. 414 (2005) (vacated on other grounds by Wiggins v. State, 280 Ga. 268 (2006)) makes this a closer call, but does not change the result. The indictment in Wiggins may not have listed the specific "crime against the State" that the defendant committed in violation of his oath, but it did include enough additional detail to create a much smaller universe of possibilities, in contrast to the reference in this indictment incorporating the entirety of both the state and federal constitutions. Page 7 of 9 23SC188947 granted, and Counts 2, 5, 6, 23, 28, and 38 quashed.89

Nasty NEWS 3:30 ET BREAKING NEWS ATLANTA LIVE 1:30 PM ET ►FANI WILLIS FULTON COUNTY, GA DISTRICT ATTORNEY I SOLD MY FANI TO PAY FOR THAT TRIP

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Overview

Fani Willis Misconduct Scandal refers to a scandal surrounding Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ relationship with Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade, which allegedly began years before Willis hired Wade to work on Georgia’s election interference case against former President Donald Trump. A hearing to decide whether to remove Fani Willis from the election interference case began in February 2024, gaining virality on the internet as people shared many memes about Fani's relationship with Wade and her testimony to regain control of Trump's case.

Background

Donald Trump's Georgia indictment began in the aftermath of the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election, before Joe Biden was inaugurated, when Trump allegedly made efforts to overturn Biden's narrow win in the state of Georgia.^[9]

On September 20th, 2023, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis^[1] was assigned to Trump's case. However, on January 8th, 2024, allegations of a romantic relationship between Willis and hired attorney Nathan Wade, who leads the Georgia prosecution of Donald Trump, raised questions about his past work and qualifications and threatened to damage one of four criminal cases against the former President.^[2]

The YouTube^[3] channel @NewsNation shared a video on January 8th, 2024, explaining that a new court filing brought by attorneys for former Trump state campaign official Michael Roman, who alleges Willis engaged in an improper romantic relationship with Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade and that the two financially benefited from their connection. The video (shown below) amassed over 27,000 views and 420 likes in a month.

Developments

On February 15th, 2024, Fani Willis testified in the hearing on whether to disqualify her from the Trump election interference case in Georgia. Fox News^[4] posted the full testimony (shown below), which amassed more than 277,000 views and 3,200 likes in a day.

In the hearing, Willis denied the relationship by saying, "It is a lie, it is a lie," at one point in response to questions, prompting a visibly perplexed Judge Scott McAfee to call a brief recess, as BBC^[5] pointed out in its coverage.

Online Reactions

The initial response to the Fani Willis scandal came in the form of memes and jokes about the alleged financial benefits from her relationship with Nathan Wade. For example, on February 15th, 2024, the X^[6] meme page @MostlyPeacefull shared an image of a man holding several dollar bills paired with the caption "Fani Willis on a random business trip," which amassed more than 7,200 likes and 880 retweets in a day (shown below, left).

On the same day, the X^[7] page @MemesDVZ posted a photoshopped image of Willis and Nathan Wade inside garbage cans (shown below, right), garnering roughly 22 likes and eight retweets in a day.

Mostly Peaceful Memes @MostlyPeacefull. Follow Fani Willis on a random business trip 11:22 PM Feb 15, 2024 20 VETEMEN X Ⓡ

On February 2nd, 2024, the X^[8] meme page @ramble_rants posted a music parody of Donald Trump talking about Willis titled "'Now I ain't sayin' she a vote rigger'" (parodying the Kanye West song "Gold Digger"), which received over 1 million views and 5,600 likes in a week (seen below).

FANI WILLIS IS A VOTE RIGGER! pic.twitter.com/npHltFhIwC

— Ramble_Rants (@ramble_rants) February 2, 2024

Search Interest

External References

^[1] New York Times – Trump Indicted in Georgia
Prosecutors Accuse Trump of ‘Criminal Enterprise’ to Overturn Election

^[2] Associated Press – Lawyer hired to prosecute Trump in Georgia is thrust into the spotlight over affair claims

^[3] YouTube – Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis accused of ‘improper’ relationship | Dan Abrams Live

^[4] YouTube – DA Fani Willis testifies on affair with Trump prosecutor

^[5] BBC – Fani Willis: Defiant Georgia prosecutor fights to stay on Trump case

^[6] X – MostlyPeacefull

^[7] X – MemesDVZ

^[8] X – ramble_rants

^[9] NYT – Trump Georgia Election Case

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Fani Willis Misconduct Scandal