Fani Willis needs to step aside amid fear scandal could kill Trump case: ethics expert

Many experts have said there is little reason Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis' case against Donald Trump will be torpedoed by allegations that she hired a romantic partner, defense attorney Nathan Wade, as a special prosecutor.

But Georgia State legal ethics professor Clark Cunningham is not so sure — and, in The New York Times, argued Willis should hand off the case to avoid endangering it.

"I believe the judicious and farsighted course would be for Ms. Willis to take a personal leave of absence and turn over control of the district attorney’s office, and the case against Mr. Trump, to a career deputy district attorney," wrote Cunningham.

This would constitute "an act of public service by Ms. Willis — and more important, [it] offers the best option for keeping the criminal case on track and holding Mr. Trump and his co-defendants accountable for their actions in the 2020 election if that is the just outcome."

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The problem is not so much whether there is any actual misconduct here, argued Cunningham, but more the appearance of it that Trump's attorneys could conjure up.

Trump and his co-defendants, wrote Cunningham, could argue "that Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade concocted the extensive special grand jury investigation — which has spanned about seven months and involved some 75 witnesses — and the subsequent 98-page, 41-count indictment against 19 defendants, to make money for themselves by enabling Mr. Wade to bill the D.A.’s office more than $650,000 for working on both the grand jury investigation and the prosecution of the indictment."

This bid may not succeed. However, he added, "they will be able to cite several factors that seem unusual in this case."

The risk this poses to the case is too great, warned Cunningham, and the easiest way to keep it going smoothly is for Willis to bow out.

"Choosing the option that has the best chance of keeping the case on track, even at a personal cost, is the right decision for Ms. Willis to make as a public-spirited official," he concluded.