CNN’s legal analyst criticized Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her prosecution team for their lackluster performance following Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee’s dismissal of six charges against former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants.
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Former federal prosecutor Elie Honig claimed Willis’ “screw up” led to McAfee’s ruling, calling it an “embarrassing” development for her and her prosecutorial team, though he said the case is “still in place” despite the “setback.”
Willis encountered obstacles in her case against the former president regarding his purported conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia after allegations surfaced of an inappropriate relationship between Willis and Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she had enlisted to work on the case involving Trump.
The potential conflict of interest overshadowed the case, prompting a dramatic evidentiary hearing last month. During the hearing, Willis refuted the allegations while testifying.
Furthermore, other legal experts suggest that Willis and Wade may have committed perjury by asserting under oath and in court documents that their relationship commenced after his hiring, despite indications from witnesses and other evidence suggesting otherwise.
During a conversation with CNN anchor Jim Acosta, Honig characterized this as a “screw-up” by Willis and the prosecutors, adding it to the roster of prior “screw-ups” in the case attributed to Willis.
“I don’t think this ruling changes the type of evidence that the DA’s going to be able to introduce, but it does knock out some of the charges, and look, it’s embarrassing for prosecutors,” he said. “It’s a screw-up by prosecutors when you bring a charge, and then a judge throws it out before it even goes to trial.”
He also ripped Willis’ behavior during the prosecution.
“There have been several screw-ups, frankly, by the DA throughout the history of this case,” he said. “Going back to the investigative phase, the DA got herself disqualified from a small piece of the case because she created a political conflict of interest.”
“The judge who was overseeing the grand jury removed Fani Willis from the case. We’ve seen Fani Willis make public statements in the church and elsewhere that have now been called into question that I think violate the ethics of prosecutorial rules, and now we’ve seen six of the charges thrown out of the case,” Honig added.
“And unlike the conflict of interest issue, this does go to the charges against the defendant. This does go to the indictment itself,” he added before saying that McAfee’s dismissal of the charges is another “setback.”