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At least one of the cases against former U.S. President Donald Trump has come under scrutiny after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was accused of improperly hiring an alleged romantic partner to prosecute Trump and financially benefited from their relationship.
A court motion filed Monday argued the criminal charges in the case were unconstitutional while alleging special prosecutor Nathan Wade, a private attorney, paid for lavish vacations he took with Willis using the Fulton County funds his law firm received.
County records show that Wade was paid nearly $654,000 in legal fees since January 2022. The DA authorizes his compensation.
The motion was filed on behalf of co-defendant Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign official, and seeks to have the charges against Roman dismissed and for Willis, Wade and the entire DA’s office to be disqualified from further prosecution of the case.
Roman’s lawyer, Ashleigh Merchant, said she reviewed the case file in Wade’s ongoing divorce proceedings at the Superior Court Clerk’s Office and made copies of certain documents but the case remains under seal and information pertaining to it cannot be shared.
Stephen Gillers, a professor emeritus at New York University Law School who has written extensively about legal and judicial ethics, told the Constitution Journal that a closer look at Willis’ decision-making is needed before it can be determined whether the indictment should be dismissed. Gillers believes, should the information prove to be true, "Willis was conflicted in the investigation and prosecution of this case”.
“That does not mean that her decisions were in fact improperly motivated,” Gillers said in an e-mail. “It does mean that the public and the state, as her client, could not have the confidence in the independent judgment that her position required her to exercise.”
Pallavi Bailey, a Willis spokeswoman, said the DA’s office will respond to Roman’s allegations “through appropriate court filings.”
Each of the defendants, including Trump, were indicted for their alleged role in a fake electors plot in an effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
BetOnline was expected to offer odds on whether the Fulton County case will ultimately be dismissed. BetOnline's Trump weight prop at the time of booking in the Fulton County jail went viral.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
