Judge Scott McAfee’s ruling against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis would finish off the career of a typical prosecutor, CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said Friday.
McAfee declined to disqualify Willis from the case but said she or her special prosecutor Nathan Wade must step down to resolve an “appearance of impropriety” related to an alleged financial conflict of interest. Honig said the ruling is a victory for Willis, but also noted there are lines in it that are significantly harmful to her reputation. (RELATED: ‘Pattern Of Deceit’: Defense Attorney Identifies 6 Concrete Examples Of Conflicts That Should Disqualify Fani Willis)
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“If I’m the DA, I’m taking this as a win. It is a win. She has survived,” Honig said. “That is the most important thing here. I‘d be breathing a sigh of relief, but … wow, is there some bruising. Let me just give you the seven, I think, most severe lines and these are really serious findings by the judge about the DA. And these are all verbatim from the opinion.”
“First of all, there’s a ‘significant appearance of impropriety that infects the prosecution team.’ Second, ‘a tremendous lack in judgment.’ Third, ‘the unprofessional manner of the DA’s testimony. Fourth, ‘the odor of mendacity remains.’ I Googled mendacity, it means lying,” Honig said before reading two more lines from the ruling.
“And finally, I think this is the most damning,” Honig added. “‘There are reasonable questions about whether the DA testified untruthfully.'”
Willis’ testimony contained statements about Wade never spending the night at her condo but phone records referenced in a recent court filing seem to show he visited her neighborhood at least 35 times in 2021. The district attorney also erupted in rage about alleged lies when questioned about Wade staying at her house during the February hearing on whether to disqualify her.
“Any one of these statements by a judge would be a career-ender for a normal prosecutor to have an on the record of finding that there are reasonable questions about whether you lied under oath. That would be devastating and we’ll see what the political effects will be,” Honig said.
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