As attacks continue to mount against Fani Willis ahead of the Georgia election interference trial, Donald Trump‘s latest attempt to discredit her comes in the form of a new motion to disqualify her from the case that cites “racial animus” the prosecutor has against the former president.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that two of Trump’s attorneys submitted a new court filing declaring a “glaring, flagrant, and calculated effort to foment racial bias into this case” following some remarks that Willis made when she spoke to the congregation of the historic Black church Big Bethel AME in downtown Atlanta during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day service on Jan. 14.
The Fulton County prosecutor is currently facing the fallout of some incendiary allegations purporting that she not only had an affair with a special prosecutor who is assigned to the election subversion case but financially benefited from it.
Willis has declined to comment directly on the claims since they surfaced, but her remarks at Big Bethel marked the first time she’s addressed them.
She told congregation members that this most recent attack, like most of the attacks her opponents have launched at her over the RICO case, is racially motivated. She and the special prosecutor included in the allegation, Nathan Wade, are both Black. Willis stated that the other attorneys working on the case, who are white, haven’t been subjected to any harassment.
“First thing they say, oh, she gonna to play the race card now,” Willis said during her speech. “But no, God, isn’t it them who’s playing the race card when they only question one?”
She also defended hiring all three special prosecutors for the case, including Wade.
“They only attack one,” Willis said. “I hired one white woman, a good personal friend and a great lawyer, a superstar, I tell you. I hired one white man – brilliant – my friend and a great lawyer. And I hired one Black man, another superstar.”
Trump’s attorneys allege that she’s injecting racial bias into the obstruction case by “publicly denouncing the defendants for somehow daring to question her decision to hire a Black man (without also mentioning that she is alleged to have had a workplace affair with the same man) to be a special prosecutor.”
They say her comments violated Georgia’s rules of professional conduct and could unfairly prejudice a jury against the defendants.
They also signed on to the motion that first introduced the allegations of an improper relationship between Willis and Wade, which co-defendant Michael Roman’s attorneys filed. In that motion, Roman’s attorneys asked the judge overseeing the case to dismiss charges and remove Willis from the probe.
Even the Republican-controlled state Senate is slated to take up a resolution that would create a special panel to investigate the rumors about the Willis-Wade relationship. If that probe is given the green light, the panel could call witnesses, evidence, and testimony. Georgia GOP state Rep. Charlice Byrd also introduced a resolution on Friday to impeach Willis over the allegations.
Willis has already been granted a temporary stay after being subpoenaed by Wade’s estranged wife, Joycelyn, to testify in the couple’s divorce proceedings. This was after an attorney for Wade’s wife produced credit card records revealing that Wade purchased airline tickets for trips to San Francisco, Miami, and Aruba in 2022 and 2023 for himself and Willis.
Wade filed for divorce from his wife in 2021 and said they’d been living separately since August 2021, according to court records.
In response, Willis’ lawyers filed a motion alleging that “[Joycelyn] Wade is using the legal process to harass and embarrass District Attorney Willis, and in doing so, is obstructing and interfering with an ongoing criminal prosecution.”
Willis has until Feb. 2 to formally respond to the allegations in court before a hearing on Feb. 15 to address the claims. Willis and Wade could potentially testify if need be.
Trump’s legal team has used allegations of racial animosity in the past to try to demonstrate that Willis is unfit to manage the case’s prosecution and call the validity of the entire indictment into question.
