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Our original thought for the headline of this piece was "Stupid DA Blows Case against Trump." But we changed our mind—but only because the actual news right now is a consequence of that, not the original story. In case you have forgotten, Donald Trump organized an alleged criminal conspiracy to try to steal Georgia's 16 electoral votes in the 2020 election. He tried to pressure Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) to "find" 11,780 votes for him, helped organize a slate of fake electors, and more. Trump and 18 co-defendants were charged with violating Georgia's RICO law. Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis began vigorously prosecuting the case.
One of Willis' first moves was to hire her then-boyfriend, Nathan Wade, to prosecute the case, even though her own office had plenty of experienced prosecutors ready to go. To make it worse, Wade had no prosecutorial experience other than a year of handling traffic citations in Cobb County. If Willis had been dating Andrew Weissmann or Jack Smith, she might have been able to make a case that he was the best prosecutor in the country, but Wade was a lawyer in private practice specializing in divorces and contracts. It was a blunder of enormous proportions. How could she have been so careless, given how high profile the case was? And she wasn't even doing Wade a favor. He said Georgia doesn't pay prosecutors all that well and he was making more money in private practice than the state was paying him.
Needless to say, the defendants asked the judge, Scott McAfee, to throw the case out due to conflicts of interest. He excoriated her for incredible stupidity, even though she hadn't broken any laws, and ruled that either Wade had to quit or Willis had to drop the case. Wade resigned immediately. The case was appealed and the appeals court ruled that it was a really bad look and Willis had to get off the case as well. She appealed. Three weeks ago, the Georgia Supreme Court denied cert, meaning they would not take the case and the appeals court ruling was final. Friday, McAfee ordered the Georgia Prosecuting Attorneys Council to assign a new prosecutor to the case within 14 days or he will dismiss.
The Georgia RICO statute is pretty broad. Basically, if two or more people plot to break one or more laws, they are in violation. Willis had a pretty strong case against Trump, especially since four of the defendants flipped and were prepared to rat on Trump to save their own necks. Willis had Trump dead to rights and she blew it. It is said that love is blind. She has proven beyond a doubt that love is also foolish beyond belief. How could she expect that, in an unbelievably high-profile case the entire world was watching very intensely, she could put her totally inexperienced boyfriend in charge and nobody would notice?
What happens next depends on whether a new prosecutor is appointed and what he or she decides to do now that Trump is president again. One option could be to drop the charges against Trump and continue the prosecution of the other defendants. Since this is a state case, Trump can't pardon them. Having them be convicted would definitely send a message to future plotters that you can be caught and punished, even if Trump gets off scot free. (V)