OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Whether a judge will disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the Trump-Georgia election interference case will be known in the coming two weeks.
Following the conclusion of several attorneys’ closing arguments in the racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and others, Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee made this announcement.
“The decision will come down to whether the judge believes Willis had a financial incentive to hire special prosecutor Nathan Wade for the case. Willis and Wade admitted to a romantic relationship, but the timeframe of that relationship was the crux of the argument about whether the relationship was improper,” AOL reported.
Lawyers claim that Willis’s alleged affair with special prosecutor Nathan Wade created a conflict of interest and jeopardized one of the four criminal cases against Trump.
The relationship, according to critics, undermines public confidence in the prosecution, despite Willis’ office maintaining that there is no evidence of any financial or professional impropriety resulting from their connection.
Days of intense testimony have dominated the case, with much of the focus being on the prosecutors’ personal lives rather than the allegations of election meddling.
The defense has accused Willis and Wade of lying about the timeline of their relationship, raising concerns about the potential message that their continued involvement in the case might send.
Willis may face the same legal repercussions as Trump and his other co-defendants in the RICO lawsuit she filed against them over the 2020 election, according to several lawyers and legal experts.
Experts surmise that she may face charges of perjury due to her sworn testimony in court about the beginning of her relationship with Nathan Hale, the special prosecutor she hired to help with the case.
Willis testified under oath last month that she and Wade only started dating following Trump’s indictment, a claim the former president’s attorneys claim they can refute with phone records. Also, a couple of witnesses have said that Willis and Wade began seeing each other romantically much sooner.
Several legal experts spoke to Newsweek and expressed concerns about Willis’ testimony.
Willis, a Democrat, may face charges of perjury from Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr, according to Eric Anderson, an attorney at Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae in Los Angeles, California.
“Given the political climate, I would not be completely surprised if the attorney general, a Republican, acts. Attorney General Carr has shown a willingness to take on elected officials in criminal proceedings before,” Anderson said.
“When it comes to politics, anything is possible. Unless the alleged perjury is about a fact material to the matter at hand, perjury charges are not likely for a regular witness,” Anderson added.
Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University, told Newsweek that Trump’s lawyers want “to shift the question before the court from disqualification to perjury.”
“The judge should focus on the real disqualification question here. Is there any basis to find that Willis chose to pursue the case to generate income for Wade, which he would then use to take her on luxury trips?” Gillers added.
“The answer is no. Willis started her investigation in February 2021 and did not hire Wade, who was not her first choice, until nine months later. She got an indictment and four guilty pleas,” Gillers said.
“Her successes so far rebut any suggestion that she brought or continued the case to generate fees for Wade. To the contrary, her successes so far tell us she did so because in fact it is a meritorious case,” Gillers added.
One law professor at Syracuse University in New York, Greg Germain, also told Newsweek that there may be charges of perjury against the district attorney.
“Willis could certainly be charged with perjury if a prosecutor can prove that Willis knowingly lied under oath. The matter would have to be referred to a prosecutor, presumably from another DA office or state or federal prosecutor, to bring the charges. It is not common for people to be charged with perjury for lying under oath about a personal relationship, but it certainly has happened in high-profile cases like Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinski. So yes, a perjury prosecution is possible,” Germain said.
