Defense attorneys laid out six specific conflicts of interest that should disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis during Friday's hearing.
Harry McDougald, a lawyer for Trump co-defendant Jeffrey Clark, argued in the original motion that Willis went beyond the financial benefit he claimed he received by appointing his girlfriend, Nathan Wade. He pointed out that it is expanding. He said other factors, including Willis' political ambitions and a “pattern of deception,” also indicated a conflict of interest. (Related: Exclusive: Fanni Willis fails to disclose airline ticket paid for by alleged lover, docu-show)
“Firstly, it's an economic conflict. That's already covered,” he said. “Secondly, there is personal ambition, political ambition. Thirdly, there is a sympathetic or complementary pattern of deception and concealment in relationships and money. Fourthly, there is speech in church.” Fifth, the motion for a nondisclosure order filed by the DA's office in Mr. Wade's divorce case. Sixth, how the state conducted its defense of this disbarment motion, particularly the hearing.”
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Mr. McDougald specifically noted that Mr. Willis did not disclose gifts from Mr. Wade in his 2022 annual income and financial disclosure report, which also included information from “prohibited sources.” Requesting gifts or favors over $100.
“There are no exceptions for boyfriends,” McDougald said. “The evidence is sufficient to know that her 2022 disclosure form is false.”
This is a combination of her legal duty of disclosure, her legal duty as a prosecutor to be frank, and her private and personal interest in hiding relationships, hiding gifts, and keeping the gravy train moving for as long as possible. There is an “actual conflict of interest'' between the parties. “He said.
McDougald said that Wade had also been involved in concealing facts, citing a written interrogation filed in the divorce case in which he said he had never entertained anyone of the opposite sex during their marriage.
“His role in a pattern of concealment is a story we see in many divorce cases, where a husband tells his wife things like how much money he makes, what he spends on it, and what he spends on it.” ,” McDougald said. “He lied on cross-examination and then he went on the witness stand and he lied that he lied on cross-examination.”
“And the attorneys at the DA's office just sat there and let him do it, in the DA's office,” he continued. “They did nothing to correct the obviously perjured testimony.”
Judge Scott McAfee said at the end of the hearing that he hoped to issue a ruling within two weeks.
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