More news on the Georgia Trump case and Fani Willis
As expected, Nathan Wade has resigned from the case. That should satisfy the decision laid down by Judge McAfee I reported on earlier today.
According to Alan Dershowitz (hat tip: commenter “Karmi”):
Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz blasted as “utterly dishonest” a judge’s “weaselly” ruling Friday to let Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis proceed with her election interference prosecution of Donald Trump and his allies.
In a brutal takedown of the 23-page ruling by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, a Dershowitz asked, “Who are you going to believe, this judge or your lying eyes?” …
“We all know there was an actual conflict of interest here,” he added. “[McAfee] just doesn’t have the guts to say it. And I predicted he wouldn’t have the guts to say it. He has to live in Fulton County.”
Dershowitz conceded the judge “may have said some things that are very critical of her, but still, he should have removed [her] … from the case.”
He also lamented how the ruling “undercuts our legal system tremendously.”
“He should have ruled, honestly, yes, there’s a conflict. Yes, she committed perjury. Yes there was a conspiracy. Yes, she received financial benefit for this. That’s the truth and the truth matters,” Dershowitz said. …
“If anybody believes that she actually paid back every penny in cash, I got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn,” he said. “There are people in prison, there are people in death row, based on evidence less strong than this.”
Yes, but those people aren’t trying to prosecute Donald Trump.
The truth should matter. It doesn’t appear that it does, however. Dershowitz believes “the ruling could be appealed on two issues: that the evidence is overwhelming that there was an actual conflict of interest, and that there shouldn’t have to be an actual conflict of interest.”
One thing that Dershowitz doesn’t mention is something I discovered just a little while ago by looking up McAfee’s Wiki page, which says this [emphasis mine]:
McAfee was an assistant district attorney in the Barrow County, Georgia, Piedmont Judicial Circuit. He joined the office of the district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, in April 2015, initially working on the early stages of criminal cases. He later was promoted to working as a prosecutor in the complex trial division, which was then headed by prosecutor Fani Willis, who was later elected as Fulton County district attorney. McAfee was eventually promoted to senior assistant district attorney in the major case division, where he prosecuted felony cases including armed robbery and murder.
So McAfee worked under Willis for quite some time; it’s not clear exactly how long or how close they were.
McAfee was appointed to his present position by Governor Kemp, who recently signed the following law (hat tip: commenter “Banned Lizard”):
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a law Wednesday that lets a state commission begin operating with powers to discipline and remove prosecutors, potentially disrupting Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ prosecution of former President Donald Trump.
“This legislation will help us ensure rogue and incompetent prosecutors are held accountable if they refuse to uphold the law,” Kemp said before signing the bill, flanked by Republican legislative leaders. “As we know all too well, crime has been on the rise across the country, and is especially prevalent in cities where prosecutors are giving criminals a free pass or failing to put them behind bars due to lack of professional conduct.” …
The measure is likely to face renewed legal challenges.
The Georgia Senate is also investigating Willis. It’s not at all clear whether any of these efforts can or will stop her, nor is the time frame obvious.
I believe I am correct in stating that, if Trump were to be convicted in the Georgia trial, Kemp could pardon him because it is a state prosecution rather than a federal one [CORRECTION: Georgia’s governor doesn’t have that power. It would be up to the Parole Board, and the way it works is that a person has to serve the sentence first]. I also believe I am correct in thinking it unlikely that Kemp – a Republican but not a Trump fan – would do so.
[ADDENDUM: More here.]
Here is Judge McAfee’s opinion on the motion to disqualify Fani Willis and her office. In the judge’s own words, p.16, “However, an odor of mendacity remains.”
https://documentcloud.org/documents/24482771-order-on-motion-to-disqualify
Dershowitz “lamented how the ruling “undercuts our legal system tremendously.”
How can any ‘ruling’ undercut a ‘legal system’ that no longer exists?
Human nature is such that when something of great value is lost, at the least it takes time to accept the loss. Some people, like Alan Dershowitz, simply can’t accept that loss, so they pretend to themselves that it’s simply been… ‘misplaced’.
“However, an odor of mendacity remains.”
Erasmus:
Powerline had a great riff on that line, relating it back, correctly I’m sure, to Burl Ives in the screen adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”
_____________________________
What’s that smell in this room? Didn’t you notice it, Brick? Didn’t you notice a powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room? There ain’t nothin’ more powerful than the odor of mendacity. You can smell it. It smells like death.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/03/an-odor-of-mendacity.php
–Burl Ives, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof — Mendacity” (1958)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_QMuWFwOPI&t=18s
_____________________________
Those Southern writers!
People mock, but, all the actions taken by this government and the progs will lead to an environment like the 2019 movie Mosul.
Unfortunately for Georgia and the country the rot goes all the way to the top, past this comprimised judge, cough, to the governor.
huxley:
I loved that movie when I saw it. I was quite young and didn’t quite “get” all the nuances, but then it was kind of cleaned up anyway from the play version. But – Paul Newman’s eyes!! And Burl Ives was very good in it. Somewhat over-the-top but very very good. They sure don’t make em like that anymore.
I was so young I had to look up “mendacity.” Later on it became a favorite word of mine.
It’s odd that Wikipedia doesn’t have Judge McAfee’s birth date, just that he was born in 1988 or 89. I’m surprised he’s only in his mid-30’s. That’s young for a judge and he looks a lot older.
Marisa:
He’s in his mid-30s I guess. I think he looks a bit older because he’s lost a lot of his hair, but he certainly doesn’t look a lot older to me. Photos here.
In Georgia, it is the Parole Board that grants pardons, not the governor.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/georgia-pardon-process-works-light-trumps-latest-indictment/story?id=102289957
JohnnyB:
I hadn’t realized that. I’ll make a correction.
Laws are what Judge Overlords say it is.
Justice is truly dead in America
Just had thought , the power of Leftists is their ability to make everyone go along or at least not creating a perception not to fight their goals or pay the consequences.
I’m puzzled by this entire process. The argument against Willis is that there is evidence that she embarked on this prosecution for her personal benefit (either kickbacks from her boyfriend, doing a favor for her boyfriend, or promoting her career by attacking Trump) rather than for the “interests of justice.” Her conflict is obvious to pretty much everyone but McAfee (who also has a conflict of interest because he’s running for election two months in a jurisdiction where Willis for some reason holds considerable political power).
That said, either Trump, et al. committed crimes or they didn’t, and the fact that Willis is corrupt doesn’t address that issue. The simple answer: declare Willis’ entire office conflicted and turn the prosecution over to the state. Let a new set of legal eyes decide whether to proceed.
Equally appalling is the lack of a pardon mechanism. The case needs to be moved to a venue where Trump has a fair chance. The Mark Steyn case shows that inner city juries will decide against conservatives regardless of the evidence. Fulton County is undoubtedly among the counties in Georgia most biased against Trump.
This is a very big deal indeed. There’s a wrong being committed for which there is no remedy other than an appeals court at some distant point deciding that the jury found Trump guilty when no “reasonable jury” would have done so. I can’t see this ending well if a sham proceeding results in a guilty verdict and Trump is hauled off to a state prison. Some adults need to take charge here.
No he didnt commit any crime, except speaking truth to power she committed embezzlement multiple frauds upon the court missprisonment and everything else under the sun
Total impropriety by the prosecution certainly does taint the whole case,
Wasn’t it the Georgia Governor’s office that refused to investigate acknowledged voter fraud when asked to by Trump, that then claimed the request was a request to create false votes, and then that leaked it to the media?
The Governor must have decided to switch horses if the opportunity arises!
yes Kemp is an accessory to the fraud, because consent decrees pushed y the likes of Marc Elias, because of the Dominion machines he bought as Secretary of State,