Tom Pappert, reporter for The Georgia Star News and lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, said the conduct of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, specifically amid the aftermath of her decision to appoint her former lover, Nathan Wade, as the special prosecutor overseeing her case against former President Donald Trump, is a “disgrace to the legal profession.”
Earlier this month, Willis avoided disqualification by Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who instead forced her legal team to part ways with Wade in order for her to remain on the Trump case.
However, as Pappert noted during Monday’s episode of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Willis could still be removed from the Trump case at any time, as Judge McAfee determined last week that the former president and eight of his co-plaintiffs may appeal his decision against disqualifying Willis from the case.
“If you just looked at the facts on the table, this appeal is going to likely be taken up by an appeals court. At this point, Fani Willis could be removed from the case at any time,” Pappert said.
Despite this, Willis continues to deny she is “embarrassed” by the disqualification proceedings against her and claims her reputation was undamaged by the public questioning of her decision to appoint Wade as special prosecutor.
“For Fani Willis to claim two or three times in a 90 second interview, that she was not embarrassed, how could you not be embarrassed? You’ve had your former lover accused of being an essentially corrupt lawyer who you hired so you could go on luxurious vacations to Central American and Caribbean countries. It’s absolutely a disgrace to the legal profession,” Pappert said.
Pappert went on to note how he believes Willis is pushing forward with the case as if nothing happened by means of a public relations campaign as she is up for re-election this year.
“Fani Willis has not requested a trial date since the disqualification proceedings against her began. So while Fani seems to think that everything is going according to plan, I personally am of the mindset that this is a posturing. This is a public relations campaign on behalf of the district attorney to try to convince her Democrat allies that they should still have faith in her,” Pappert explained.
“Fani Willis, from my understanding, now needs to request a new trial date. Everything has been derailed and slowed down, whether she likes it or not, by months because of the disqualification proceedings. And yet, we’ve seen no such developments from the district attorney. Instead, she’s going to Easter egg hunts and giving interviews to CNN,” Pappert added.
Pappert further said he believes Willis has realized that the case against the former president is not going to come to trial before the November elections, so instead of focusing on being the woman to take down Trump, she is focusing on retaining her seat.
“I think that she may have realized that this is not going to come to trial before November. She is not going to go down in history as the woman who finally took down Donald Trump. Instead, she needs to focus on retaining her seat. I think there’s a real possibility that this is the case,” Pappert said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis” by D.A. Fani Willis.
She’s also a disgrace to her race and gender.