No conflict of interest but 'lapse in judgement'

Some see the judge’s ruling as proof of prosecutorial malfeasance by Fani Willis. Others see the fact that she wasn’t disqualified from the case as vindication. The inquiry into Willis’ relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade unfolded over seve

istrict Attorney Fani Willis stepped onto the stage at a ballroom in the Ritz-Carlton with a swagger that made it seem like she had not a care in the world.

It was just days before a Fulton County judge was slated to announce whether he would remove her from one of the biggest cases her office had ever pursued — one that charged the former president of the United States with trying to overthrow the 2020 election. The legal and political quandary was the result of Willis’ romance with a subordinate, which had exploded into a full-blown scandal that threatened to derail the case.

Willis told the hundreds of attendees — most of them Black women — she had no hesitation about seeking another term.

“Let me tell you how much I don’t regret it: Wednesday I went and re-upped” for reelection, she told the crowd at an International Women’s Day Atlanta luncheon March 10. “I want four more years.”

Many in the purple-filled ballroom erupted in cheers of “four more years.”

The night before, at a campaign rally about 70 miles away in Rome, Trump — one of 15 remaining defendants in the case — had described the prosecution as a political “witch hunt,” one he said Willis has used to enrich herself.

Backed by American flags, Trump surveyed a crowd of thousands of fans wearing MAGA hats and shirts. They booed Willis and laughed as Trump mocked her.

“Corrupt Fani Willis hired her lover, Nathan Wade, so they could fraudulently make money together,” Trump told the crowd. “‘Let’s see, darling, who can we go after?’”

Opponents and supporters of the Fulton County election interference case have long looked at the prosecution through a partisan lens. Perhaps nowhere was that split-screen more apparent than the back-to-back events held in two Georgia cities last weekend.

They were a prelude to a decision that, like the case itself, was the equivalent of a Rorschach test. To some, Judge Scott McAfee’s ruling that defense attorneys had failed to prove the district attorney’s romantic relationship constituted a conflict

AP POOL NATHAN WADE: Resigned from his position as special prosecutor in the election interference case Friday following the judge’s ruling.

AP POOL FANI WILLIS: The Fulton County district attorney will continue her role prosecuting the criminal election interference case against Donald Trump and others.

AP POOL JUDGE SCOTT McAFEE: Ruled that either Fani Willis or special prosecutor Nathan Wade needed to leave the case to remove the appearance of impropriety.