The title of this blog is not a misprint. Fulton County (Atlanta) District Attorney Fani Willis – who is trying to prosecute Donald Trump for claiming that he was stiffed in Georgia’s presidential vote and asking that his people find enough of the votes he was deprived of to change the result – is playing the race card card. That is, she is not just whining that race is being used against her, but that the race card is being used to go after her personally.
And why are Trump’s people – specifically Trump co-defendant Michael Roman – going after her personally?
Well, for that little matter of hiring her boyfriend, Nathan Wade, as the special prosecutor on Trump’s case (jumping him over more qualified/experienced alternatives), paying him over $650,000 in fees for his efforts, and then being his, er, “guest”, on a number of vacation jaunts to California, Florida and the Caribbean.
Not surprisingly, therefore the claim is that Trump’s prosecution is being used, at least in part, as a payoff to Willis’s lover…which he is then using to lavish expensive vacations (and who knows what else) on her.
According to Alex Oliveira’s article for the New York Post (via msn.com):
Willis pointed out during her speech that the other two prosecutors assigned to the case, Anna Green Cross and John Floyd, both are white, and noted that allegations have only emerged targeting the two prominent black members of the prosecution — her and Wade.
“Isn’t it them playing the race card when they constantly think I need someone from some other jurisdiction in some other state to tell me how to do a job I’ve been doing almost 30 years?” she asked.
And Roman’s answer? Here is the statement he put out, via his lawyer, Ashleigh Merchant:
“If anybody doubts our claim that Wade is inexperienced, ask him how many RICO cases he has handled. Ask him how many felonies he has tried. This has nothing to do with the color of his skin.
“The biggest difference between Ms. Cross, Mr. Floyd and Mr. Wade is that Ms. Willis is not in a relationship with Ms. Cross and Mr. Floyd.
“Even after Willis’s comments today, it is not clear to what case or county she is referring, but she still has not explained how this other case qualified Wade for this prosecution. Importantly, it has been an almost a week, and she has failed to address her personal relationship with Wade, which permeates each aspect of our motion. Nothing she said today changes any of the important arguments raised in our motion and does not change the unfortunate facts surrounding her appointment of Wade. We look forward to addressing these issues in further detail with the Court.”
Assuming Cross and Floyd are not also taking Fani Willis on expensive vacations, that point of differentiation seems to have some merit.
In addition, according to Kate Brumback’s article for the Associated Press:
Merchant wrote in her motion that she can find no evidence that Wade, whose law firm website promotes his experience in civil litigation, including car accident and family law cases, has ever prosecuted a felony case. She questioned his qualifications to try this case.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. Is that true? Is this, in the final analysis, an apparently unqualified guy being hooked into a $$$ goldmine because Fani Willis likes his company (take that however you want) at vacation retreats?
Let’s keep an eye on where, if anywhere, the attack against Willis – not to mention the bigger one against Trump – winds up going.
