CBS legal analyst Rikki Klieman said this case will not end well for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis following the trial’s closing arguments Friday.
The legal teams concluded their closing arguments in the trial against Willis over her previous relationship with prosecutor Nathan Wade, with whom she allegedly benefited from a lucrative contract by paying him a higher salary. The case was brought forth by Michael Roman, a co-defendant of former President Donald Trump, requesting Willis be disqualified from prosecuting the election interference case in Georgia over this relationship.
“I’ll say this without fear of contradiction, this case is not getting dismissed. However, the one question that does remain is whether or not Fani Willis and/or Nathan Wade will be disqualified from continuing the case,” Klieman said. “The fact that it may create a delay, the fact that another prosecutor may have to look at it anew, well that’s just a consequence of reckless conduct. In this particular case, I think I’ve said it before, the conduct here of Fani Willis and Nathan Wade was stunning in its recklessness.”
Klieman added that the Bar Association could consider disbarring Willis or Wade in the state of Georgia over this “reckless conduct.”
“One thing we know for sure, which is in the mind of this judge, that even if he does not disqualify the district attorney as well as Nathan Wade, that the one place where these complaints are going is down to the Bar Association. And we know that there are groups of people who are looking at this conduct. It is so basic to a lawyer, particularly to a prosecutor, that you cannot have an appearance of impropriety. That is the problem here,” she added. (RELATED: Jonathan Turley Says Fani Willis And Nathan Wade’s Case Against Trump Is ‘Unraveling’)
Willis paid Wade $250 an hour while the other prosecutors, including a top racketeering expert, earned $200 an hour. The extra money had allegedly been used for the two to go on luxury vacations together.
Wade’s firm received nearly $654,000 from the Fulton County District Attorney’s office since the start of 2022, according to county records. The firm of John Floyd, who is considered to be one of the top racketeering attorneys, received just over $90,000 during the same period. The district attorney falsely said she paid all of her prosecutors the same, the Daily Caller News Foundation exclusively confirmed.
Wade admitted in a Feb. 1 affidavit that he began a romantic relationship with Willis in 2022. A longtime friend of Willis, Robin Yeartie, testified she had “no doubt” that Wade and Willis began a relationship in 2019, which Willis later denied.
Willis broke into an angry outburst during her Feb. 15 testimony on the witness stand as she was pressed on Wade visiting her home, in which she held up documents and asserted the accusations were false.