What a rotten country. Our freedoms have been lost. First the stole the election and now they will convict without evidence. Trump never had to even be heard in court. They’re headed to convict him on day one. What ever happened to being entitled to representation and legal defense? Willis only even got her job because she’s Black. They evidence they’re using against was gleaned from chicken guts.
Agreed. Importantly though, the appeal does not stall the prosecution process.The legal system needs a serious overhaul.
Trump gets green light to appeal judge's own Fani Willis ruling — adding new delay
Donald Trump will have a chance to appeal a ruling that allowed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue overseeing her office's sprawling racketeering case into the former president and several of his associates. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Fulton Superior...www.rawstory.com
Sure it does, the appeal is at least a month's delay. I don't see a high probability that this goes to trial this autumn (before the election). A Georgia law professor familiar with the case stated yesterday the best thing for the case would be if DA Willis takes a personal leave of absence (he'd advocated the same back in January). That would nullify this appeal completely, and get the case moving forward. Not that anyone expects that to happen.Agreed. Importantly though, the appeal does not stall the prosecution process.
Judge allowed appeal but will not stay the case. Small amount of good news.Sure it does, the appeal is at least a month's delay. I don't see a high probability that this goes to trial this autumn (before the election). A Georgia law professor familiar with the case stated yesterday the best thing for the case would be if DA Willis takes a personal leave of absence (he'd advocated the same back in January). That would nullify this appeal completely, and get the case moving forward. Not that anyone expects that to happen.
If the appeal succeeds or the PACG removes Willis, then this case is dead (Google Fani Willis Burt Jones).
Oh goodness, I see hardly any evidence Judge McAfee is another Aileen Cannon. None of the news articles I've read has suggested that either. I think your accusation is highly unfair. McAfee did blast Willis in his ruling, but because he followed GA case law, there was very little chance he would disqualify the DA unless he caught them committing perjury. We know the defense was always going to appeal after losing this ruling, because delay is the name of their game. It's certainly possible McAfee is being overly deferential to the defendants and part of the calculus is that a conviction has to survive the inevitable appeals.At first it looked like the trial judge would be handling this diversionary tactic correctly-he warned he wanted real evidence of a conflict, wasn't going to tolerate bare innuendos, etc. Then he keep the hearing open forever and kept going further and further afield. Finally he wrote a decision where he specifically found no conflict but (maybe for GA political reasons spent a great deal of time being harsh about Willis and Wade for no apparent reason.
Despite there being no conflict the trial judge concluded "to avoid the appearance of impropriety" either Wade or Willis had to go. That is total nonsense as far as the Code of Professional Responsibility goes. Willis and Wade dating has absolutely no adverse impact on the defendants' rights. If Willis hired an unqualified boyfriend that weakens the prosecution-to the direct benefit of the defendants. At most this was a personnel matter, a county matter. Now the judge permits an appeal of this diversionary interlocutory matter. WHY?
The most favorable conclusion I can apply to the judge's rulings is he really doesn't want this case to got to trial before him, especially before the election. At least he specifically ruled the case would not be stayed upon such an appeal.
I really hope some super RICO lawyer steps up to take Wade's place.
Oh goodness, I see hardly any evidence Judge McAfee is another Aileen Cannon. None of the news articles I've read has suggested that either. I think your accusation is highly unfair. McAfee did blast Willis in his ruling, but because he followed GA case law, there was very little chance he would disqualify the DA unless he caught them committing perjury. We know the defense was always going to appeal after losing this ruling, because delay is the name of their game. It's certainly possible McAfee is being overly deferential to the defendants and part of the calculus is that a conviction has to survive the inevitable appeals.
I have no strong opinions about Wade's qualifications except the reporting that we've already heard. A lot of people were highly puzzled that Fulton County's DA would hire an outside lead prosecutor with no felony litigation experience, much less RICO experience when they surely have seasoned prosecutors on staff. I realize Wade was her third choice, but why did it even have to go outside of the DA's office?
It's too late to change the past, but in the biggest case of her career and arguably one of the biggest of the century, Willis decided to have a relationship with her direct hire. We all want Trump to pay for his crimes but that's less likely to happen when the people trying to convict him score own goals.
The legal question isn't whether Willis hired someone less likely to win a conviction, so that point is relatively moot.I think he's spot on. What would be the prejudice to the defendant if they were even still sleeping together? Mcafee handled it wrong from the get-go.
What was the own goal? I think we too often get sucked into right wing phraseology. Check out some of the cases McAfee cited. In once case an investigator had a relationship with a witness and the court said they couldn't infer any conflict of interest. It's a pretty high bar to remove a prosecutor esp. absent and actual conflict/prejudice/ bias to the defendant. I think Mcafee wanted to seem fair and bent the precedence some in order to so.
With all things Trump, he puts so much pressure on the system, eventually something cracks.
You're welcome to leave it at any time...This country is a joke
The goal is to make it better. America isn't perfect and isn't free from criticismYou're welcome to leave it at any time...
If you love the country, you work to fix it.The goal is to make it better. America isn't perfect and isn't free from criticism
Not sure what you mean by this.The legal question isn't whether Willis hired someone less likely to win a conviction, so that point is relatively moot.
Defendants asserted (ultimately without proof) that Willis had a private incentive to pursue this prosecution with her hand-picked outside attorney. To be clear, I'm not accusing Willis of anything untoward besides letting her personal life get in the way of her work. When she ran for county D.A., she literally told voters that she would never date a subordinate. I don't know what is customary in a case like this, but Fulton County is the largest in the state of Georgia. The initial own goal was hiring a prosecutor outside of her office to begin with, one who's never worked RICO.
Imagine if you said that to people struggling for civil rights and criticizing America. Or for women's right. Or for labor's rights. You need to evolve your thinking a little bit man.You're welcome to leave it at any time...
We'll just agree to disagree. I avoid right-wing news (well, except for the NYT ) and I don't see other commentators saying Judge McAfee has been bad. He's young and you could very well be correct that he's been too kind to the defense attorneys. Like I suggested, he probably wants any convictions in his court to survive protracted appeals.Not sure what you mean by this.
I'm saying the judge could have held this in chambers and made the defense establish a base level of evidence first. The only case law on the private incentive, was a DA who gave bonuses for convictions. And the court found that was an actual conflict. I could see how it could prejudice the defendant so that makes sense. In this case, that wasn't the case. Wade wasn't paid bonuses for convictions. He was paid hourly. The fact that he pushed for plea deals that would reduce his time prosecuting the cases, kills that narrative further.
I get what she said. I'm not arguing that is was unwise. But, that is a professional/HR issue. Not an issue for the court as no one has yet to vocalize an actual harm to the defendant that Wade dating Willis would have caused. There has to be a there there. So, most of this is just feeding into Right wing noise. How is a relationship between two people on the same side detrimental to the defendant?. Ashley Merchant and her husband both worked for the defense. Was the defense prejudiced because of that?
We'll just agree to disagree. I avoid right-wing news (well, except for the NYT ) and I don't see other commentators saying Judge McAfee has been bad. He's young and you could very well be correct that he's been too kind to the defense attorneys. Like I suggested, he probably wants any convictions in his court to survive protracted appeals.
Having said that, it's not an HR issue. The relationship was consensual, and there are no allegations about workplace misconduct. My point is that the retort that hiring a non-veteran prosecutor should be good for the defense is not the legal issue. If Wade was a star prosecutor, then the defense could argue they were in fact harmed by his hiring? It's irrelevant; Wade's CV is not the legal question at hand. I personally DGAF who Ms. Willis dates, but McAfee's opinion was that there was an appearance of impropriety and therefore, Wade had to go to resolve that appearance.
Ashleigh Merchant's allegations are plainly obvious and revolve around Fulton County paying Wade some $550k (his partners almost $200k). I don't know why you need to ask for an explanation. The question is whether the allegations had any truth, and McAfee ruled that they didn't. FWIW WashPo had a really long article about Merchant's aggressive pursuit of this attack line. One of her claims is that when an outside attorney is hired for a public prosecution, they generally don't bill standard commercial rates but a much lower hourly rate. But that's her professional opinion, and may not be relevant to a massive RICO case when MAGAts will harass you.
Anyway, who's sleeping with who is pretty much irrelevant. If you have any Op-Eds about McAfee making mistakes, please share.
As a matter of both common sense and Georgia law, a prosecutor is disqualified from a case due to a “conflict of interest” only when the prosecutor’s conflicting loyalties could prejudice the defendant leading, for example, to an improper conviction. None of the factual allegations made in the Roman motion have a basis in law for the idea that such prejudice could exist here – as it might where a law enforcement agent is involved with a witness, or a defense lawyer with a judge. We might question Willis’s judgment in hiring Wade and the pair’s other alleged conduct, but under Georgia law that relationship and their alleged behavior do not impact her or his ability to continue on the case.
This case was not going to trial before the election and it never was.So much for those who insisted that this case could get back on track.
The New York Times (@nytimes) on Threads
Breaking News: The Georgia Court of Appeals stayed most proceedings in Donald Trump’s election interference case, effectively freezing the prosecution.www.threads.net
Yea i'm sick of the ways the republicans are using the legal system to slow things down. This has nothing to do with his guilt or even how evidence was collected. It is an independent tangent issue.So much for those who insisted that this case could get back on track.
The New York Times (@nytimes) on Threads
Breaking News: The Georgia Court of Appeals stayed most proceedings in Donald Trump’s election interference case, effectively freezing the prosecution.www.threads.net